Frances Bavier :: Character Guides

Aunt Bee (Beatrice Taylor) is Mayberry Sheriff Andy Taylor's aunt and Opie Taylor's great aunt. When Andy's housekeeper marries in the first episode, Bee joins Andy's household.

Bee sings in the church choir, enters her pickles in the county fair, and composes an anthem with her best friend Clara Edwards celebrating the wholesome life of Mayberry. She learns to fly a plane, serves on a jury, opens a restaurant, hosts a tv cooking show, and leads a protest in Mayberry that lands her in jail. She travels to Hollywood with Andy and Opie, and to Mexico with her friends Clara and Myrtle. Bee has several beaux during the course of the series run.

Aunt Bee remained in the show for its entire eight seasons and graduated to TAGS spinoff Mayberry RFD. Although actress Frances Bavier was alive at the time of NBC's 1986 reunion movie Return to Mayberry she had retired from acting and did not participate in the movie. In one scene, Andy visits Aunt Bee's grave. Aunt Bee "died" sometime after her final appearance on Mayberry RFD in 1970.