When actress Betty Lynn first moved to Andy Griffith’s quaint hometown and inspiration for the eponymous show, she couldn’t go to the grocery store without meeting enthusiastic fans, calling out to “Thelma Lou.” The actress, who played Deputy Barney Fife’s girlfriend on the hit television show says, “They’d hug me and kiss me. Some of them cry.” Except for every third Friday of the month, when the 88-year-old actress transforms from a local to a legend. Lynn appeared in just 25 episodes, but her character has had an outsized impact on the fan base. Lynn is one of fans’ last living connections to the show. Griffith died in 2012 and Don Knotts passed in 2006. She says she still talks to Ron Howard, who played Andy’s son Opie, from time to time. She last called him to praise his daughter’s lead role in ‘The Help’.
