![]() You got the impression people had been here before trying this approach. ![]() When I said I wanted to learn more about Frances Bavier, she grew silent. I found the woman working in the back of her shop. “She’s the daughter of Miss Bavier’s best friend, the one she came out here for.” I asked, “Is there anyone in town who knows her well, whom I could talk to?” He thought for a minute and named a local woman who ran a craft store. A man came over and said, “I suppose we’ve written a few articles on her, but that was a long time ago. ![]() ![]() In fact, she was not real sure who Frances Bavier was. The young woman on the front desk did not know of any articles they had written about her. I left my card in the front door and drove to the newspaper office. I walked up to the door and knocked several times without a response. The house would have fit in any middle class neighborhood in the country. So this is where a Hollywood star retires. Stays inside with a houseful of cats.” She described the two story brick-and-rock facade house which I located a dozen blocks away. She smiled and said, “I can tell you where she lives, but you won’t be able to see her. Inside the village of Siler City, I aimed at the tall white spire of the First Baptist Church where I introduced myself to the secretary as pastor of the First Baptist Church of Charlotte. I might not be able to actually meet her, but one never knows about these things, and I surely would not if I did not try. By the late 1980s we were living in Charlotte and I learned that Miss Bavier, perhaps in her 80s by now, had retired to Siler City. I knew then that I would be taking an afternoon and driving to Siler City to find Aunt Bee.įrances Bavier had played the aunt to Andy Taylor and son Opie in the 60s sitcom “The Andy Griffith Show.” Over the years, along with much of America, I loved the program more in reruns than when it was fresh. There it lay in the center of the state, about an hour’s drive from the conference center where I would be spending three days. The belongings will be auctioned this spring, said Bob Royster, production director for the public television center.I got down the North Carolina map and looked up Siler City. The walls were mostly bare except for a few ordinary electric wall clocks.Īnd while Aunt Bee was known around the fictitious Mayberry, N.C., courthouse for her tasty box lunches, there was only one cookbook in Miss Bavier’s yellow and green 1950s kitchen. But what she made with the material was not evident in the house, which had no curtains at the windows. Just as the neat, matronly Aunt Bee would have done, Miss Bavier saved sewing fabric in labeled boxes in a bedroom closet. There also was a blue satin gown she may have worn when she won her Emmy Award, said Hatch. The few mementos of the actress’ television days were the dress and hats she wore in the show and a few publicity pictures. Miss Bavier’s few costly possessions consisted primarily of some rare leather-bound books, a lace collection and a considerable quantity of table linens, said Hatch. Two trunks held her fan mail, letters in one and studio portraits of her “to be signed” in another. could have had non-stop fans if she had opened her doors,” said Hatch. “I think she was a person who obviously valued her privacy. Her cats apparently used a basement room and a shower stall as a litter box.Įvidently, the reclusive actress spent most of her time in a large back room plainly furnished with a bed, a desk, a television and an end table, where she kept her reading and opera glasses, black licorice and a bell. The stench from the actress’ 14 cats coupled with peeling plaster, frayed carpets and worn upholstery indicate Miss Bavier either was unable or unwilling to spend much time keeping up the home.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |