Some Facts
"Nobody will move me, I am not a dining room table, I am not a sofa, I am not a rug, how dare you!" [her reaction to Howard Morris trying to rearrange the set].
After moving to North Carolina upon her retirement Frances was initially named honorary chairman of the Christmas Seal drive for the Mid-State Tuberculosis and Respiratory Disease Association and was appointed chairman of the 1973 Easter Seal Campaign for the North Central Chapter of the state Easter Seal society. As time passed, however, Bavier found herself overwhelmed by demands of her services and retreated forever.
She performed in the live action reference footage for Walt Disney's "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).
A life-long exponent of Studebaker automobiles. The last car she bought was a 1966 model, the last model year for the make, made in the Canadian plant in Hamilton, Ontario. Some accounts say that the car was a 1964, the last year of production in the US plant in South Bend, Indiana. During the production of The Andy Griffith Show (1960) and Mayberry R.F.D. (1968) she drove herself to and from the studio in it. Reportedly, it can be seen in the latter series. Miss Bavier took it to her home in North Carolina after she retired there and is believed to have last driven it in 1983. After her death in 1989, it was found sitting on four flat tires and its interior had been ruined by cats. Even so, two Andy Griffith fans bought it for $20,000 at auction.
Despite her good-hearted image on screen, cast members of The Andy Griffith Show often remember her as difficult, temperamental and somewhat cold. Griffith himself said "There was just something about me she did not like."