‘Aunt Bee’ Thought That Andy Griffith Invented the Way Mayberry Residents Speak

Beatrice “Aunt Bee” Taylor was born and raised in North Carolina. However, Frances Bavier grew up in Manhattan, an upbringing that comes out in her strong transatlantic accent. Bavier spent most of her formative years and the earliest parts of her career in New York City. If she had any exposure to the South before The Andy Griffith Show, it was minimal at best. When Bavier first read her script, she thought the Southern vernacular sprinkled throughout was made up.

“But people simply don’t talk like that,” was Bavier’s first impression of the dialogue, as revealed in an interview with The Calgary Herald. Bavier clung to this idea until she visited the South herself. “It was my first trip to the South,” the actress said. “I didn’t believe it before. I thought Andy was making it up.”

Interestingly enough, the Emmy-winning actress fell in love with the southern United States on that trip and even wanted to purchase a house there. She eventually dismissed the notion, stating, “I do believe in many ways it’s a better life in a small town. But I worry whether you always have to be politic and polite. I think it takes skill to live in a small town and you have to tread very gently.”

But the allure of small-town life in a tiny, Southern town must’ve never strayed far from Bavier’s thoughts. After retiring from acting, she purchased a home in Siler City, North Carolina, a small town mentioned in a season 5 episode of The Andy Griffith Show. We have to wonder if all the time she spent in Mayberry influenced that decision.

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