Aunt Bee – The Andy Griffith Show.. Mayberry (RFD)

Aunt Bee is a fictional character from the 1960 American television sitcom The Andy Griffith Show. Played by Frances Bavier, the character migrated to the spinoff Mayberry R.F.D. (1968–1971) when The Andy Griffith Show ended its run in 1968, and remained for two years. Though she was the aunt of Sheriff Andy Taylor, virtually every character in Mayberry called her “Aunt Bee”.

Aunt Bee, full name Beatrice Taylor, is the paternal aunt of widower Sheriff Andy Taylor and great-aunt to his son Opie Taylor. In the premiere episode of The Andy Griffith Show, “The New Housekeeper,” Aunt Bee returns to Mayberry after a five-year sojourn in Morgantown, West Virginia, when Andy’s housekeeper Rose marries and leaves his house. Aunt Bee thereafter manages Andy’s household and becomes Opie’s surrogate mother and grandmother. Andy explains to Opie that he was raised by Aunt Bee, and Bee later mentions, without elaboration, having raised other Taylors. Bee is well known in Mayberry for her cooking skills. In the first episode, she serves a platter of fried chicken with all the trimmings, and thereafter her character is associated with wholesome, home-cooked meals.

She frequently contributes meals to community or church events and brings picnic baskets of food to Mayberry’s tiny jail for its lawmen and inmates.

While Aunt Bee is celebrated for her cuisine, she falls short as a pickler and marmalade maker. Andy and Barney refer to her pickles as “kerosene cucumbers” and her marmalade as “ammonia”. Andy is fond of her pork chops and cornbread biscuits, while Opie’s favorite dish is her butterscotch pecan pie. Bee has several one-episode flirtations in the early seasons with men who prove to be cads.

Aunt Bee’s other relatives sometimes come up in episodes; she speaks of trimming her brother’s hair when a girl and, in one episode, her sister Nora visits. She also has a rapscallion cousin called Bradford J. Taylor who features in a color episode. Bee is a teetotaler. In an episode in which a traveling salesman comes to Mayberry peddling patent medicine, Andy tells Barney that Aunt Bee is heavily against alcohol due to her brother’s trouble with the bottle. In the same episode, Bee plays the piano and speaks of her baptism. Bee is a member of the town choir and sings in church.

Wikipedia.org