Aunt Bee

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Beatrice "Aunt Bee" Taylor was a character on the long-running 1960s American television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show and its successor program Mayberry R.F.D. played by Frances Bavier.

Beatrice (called "Aunt Bee" or "Bee" by everyone) was the aunt of Sheriff Andy Taylor in the small town of Mayberry, North Carolina. She was originally from Morgantown, West Virginia ^[1]. Aunt Bee appeared in the first episode of The Andy Griffith Show, when she moved in with Andy after his housekeeper Rose left to get married.

Aunt Bee, Andy, Opie, and Andy's cousin and deputy sheriff Barney Fife made up the core cast of the show. Despite never marrying and having no children of her own, Bee was a natural maternal figure. In the inaugural episode, Andy explains to Opie that he was raised by Aunt Bee himself. Bee speaks of raising other Taylors, but her role of matriarch is left in the dark (much like the death of Andy's wife, and where in the family tree cousin Barney fits- paternal or maternal side, or even Andy's cousin-in-law). She helped as cook/ housekeeper for the widowed Taylor and his young son, Opie, and served as a surrogate mother/grandmother figure to Opie as well.

While Bee was an excellent cook, she was oblivious to the fact that she made incredibly bad tasting pickles; Andy and Barney referred to them as her "Kerosene Cucumbers." She was probably best known for her apple pie, and bringing picnic baskets of food for Andy and the inmates in Mayberry's tiny jail.

Aunt Bee stayed to see Opie grow from age six to fourteen, when Andy finally married his longtime girlfriend, Helen Crump. After the newlywed Taylors left Mayberry and the program became Mayberry R.F.D., Bee continued to fill largely the same role for the new central character, Sam Jones (also a widowed father), and his son Mike. Now residing at the Jones farm, Aunt Bee had to adjust to different chores, such as feeding livestock, and harvesting eggs.

Actress Frances Bavier had a love-hate relationship with her character Bee. Since Bavier retired in 1974 (after doing a Benji movie), she was one of a few surviving cast members not to be involved in the 1986 NBC television movie Return to Mayberry. In the reunion special, Andy tells Barney he is going to see Aunt Bee. In the next frame he is standing at her gravesite, fondly recalling her. Apparently, Aunt Bee died sometime between Bavier's 1970 departure from Mayberry R.F.D. and the events of Return to Mayberry.

[edit] Trivia

While Aunt Bee spent more seasons in Mayberry (1960-70) than any other character, the oft mentioned but never seen phone operator Sarah comes in second. Andy is third. Griffith, however, did more episodes than anyone, with ten more than Bavier.

"Bee" is in fact the correct spelling. Although her name is Beatrice, many times throughout The Andy Griffith Show and its spin-off Mayberry RFD, the name is clearly spelled out "Bee", as in "Welcome Home Aunt Bee."