# Was Aunt Bee A Spinster? Widow? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 3, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686 "2009-01-03T07:31:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/1 "2009-01-03T07:31:23Z")
I was watching the first episode of the Andy Griffith Show where Rose leaves and Aunt Bee comes. Andy tells Opie that Aunt Bee raised him. Then Aunt Bee says after all those years spent raising all those young uns, now she had nothing to do and was grateful when he called. So were those young uns hers? Or does she “off” the parents so she can raise their kids? Or did she run an orphanage? Maybe took in foster kids, 'cause she couldn’t get a job? Was it said if Aunt Bee was married before? ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/2 "2009-01-03T08:03:56Z")
It is claimed by many people who pay more attention than I to such details that Aunt Bee wore a wedding band throughout the series. I don’t believe the actress, Frances Bavier, ever married. The mere fact that Bee’s husband was never mentioned on the series cannot be taken as definitive evidence that she wasn’t married. We know Opie had a mother, but she is mentioned only a couple of times and there don’t seem to be any mementos of her in the house. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 8:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/3 "2009-01-03T08:25:13Z")
[See here re Andy’s wife](http://www.tagsrwc.com/faq/index.php?cat=2) ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 5:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/4 "2009-01-03T17:34:18Z")
[The definitive word](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Bee): 🙂 > [@](#): > > Aunt Bee is the paternal aunt of Sheriff Andy Taylor and grand-aunt to his son Opie Taylor. In the premier 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 speaks of raising other Taylors. > … > Aunt Bee is not an only child; 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. She dated a lot of guys, but with no mention of a late husband, so the answer is either “spinster” or “slut”. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 5:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/5 "2009-01-03T17:39:24Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > [The definitive word](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aunt_Bee): 🙂 :dubious: > [@](#): > > She dated a lot of guys, but with no mention of a late husband, so the answer is either “spinster” or “slut”. With no mention of being a spinster or slut, there must have been a late husband! ---
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/6 "2009-01-03T19:54:00Z")
Frances Bavier retired to Siler City NC which was mentioned a few times on the show. When she died she left everything to NC public TV which auctioned it off. Fans came from all over the world for the auction. Siler City is a small town about 30 miles west of Raleigh. ---
**Author:** ![freckafree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/freckafree/32/3050_2.png) [@freckafree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/freckafree)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/7 "2009-01-03T21:45:38Z")
> [@](#): > > Aunt Bee returns to Mayberry after a five year sojourn in Morgantown, West Virginia OMG!!! Morgantown?!?? :eek: Do you suppose she and [Barney Fife](http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0461455/)… Naaaah. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/8 "2009-01-03T22:27:49Z")
I seem to recall some allusion to the fact that she never married and that she’s Andy blood relative. I’ll try to find it somewhere; however, Wouldn’t the fact that her name on the show is Bee Taylor and she’s Andy Taylor’s paternal aunt be a clue that she never married? She still uses that familly name and (once-) married women of that era weren’t given to keeping their maiden names. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/9 "2009-01-03T22:29:29Z")
Aunt Bee make extra money on the side as a dominatrix specializing in humilation and genital torture. What? ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [January 3, 2009, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/10 "2009-01-03T22:32:18Z")
> [@Cluricaun](#): > > Aunt Bee make extra money on the side as a dominatrix specializing in humilation and genital torture. > > What? If you’ve ever watched the episodes where she keeps Otis (and other prisoners later) at the house because of overcrowding and works him to exhaustion, and the one where Briscoe Darling kidnaps her and she convinces him through passive-aggressive torture to let her go, why do you think we’d be surprised by this? Don’t let all that baking and that sing-songey way of talking fool you. ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/11 "2009-01-04T16:24:15Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > It is claimed by many people who pay more attention than I to such details that Aunt Bee wore a wedding band throughout the series. [This still](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Clara_and_Aunt_Bee_101.JPG) from Wikipedia shows a naked left hand. Then again, it is a posed still, and not a frame from an episode, but I’m inclined to believe there’s no wedding ring on her finger in the shows. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/12 "2009-01-04T16:49:24Z")
The one question I have is this: If she had previously raised a mess of kids, where the hell are they? I mean, I could ask WHOSE kids they were, but I still have to ask why they never visit, write or have any apparent contact. Obviously, it’s a TV show and they chose to ignore that over the course of the series. But it would have left open a lot of potential show plots. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 4, 2009, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/13 "2009-01-04T18:42:51Z")
Maybe she ran an orphanage. ---
**Author:** ![rock\_party](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e19b73/32.png) [@rock\_party](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rock_party)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/14 "2009-01-05T01:33:53Z")
> [@](#): > > so the answer is either “spinster” or “slut”. Or stap-on wearin’ lesbian. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/15 "2009-01-05T01:47:08Z")
> [@rock\_party](#): > > Or stap-on wearin’ lesbian. She and Clara seemed awfully chummy, didn’t they? Seriously, I think she was a spinster. When men courted her she was pretty skittish. ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/16 "2009-01-05T02:00:09Z")
I’d guess she was the family’s “maiden aunt” AKA “poor relation” so the mess of kids she raised belonged to the various family members she lived with over the years. She probably went where she was needed or where there was room for her and made herself useful by taking care of the kids and helping with the housekeeping, just like she was doing for Andy and Opie. She probably agreed to take Rose’s place so she could have the house under her own control, instead of having to be the second female where she was. ---
**Author:** ![Markxxx](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5daacb/32.png) [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/17 "2009-01-05T02:11:13Z")
> [@lobotomyboy63](#): > > She and Clara seemed awfully chummy, didn’t they? Actually Clara and Bee were mostly rivals and pretty catty toward each other. ---
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/18 "2009-01-05T02:16:50Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Actually Clara and Bee were mostly rivals and pretty catty toward each other. The ladies doth protest…oh, never mind ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/19 "2009-01-05T04:25:59Z")
> [@](#): > > Aunt Bee returns to Mayberry after a five year sojourn in Morgantown I wonder if she had an onion on her belt. ---
**Author:** ![usar\_jag](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/f0a364/32.png) [@usar\_jag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usar_jag)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686/20 "2009-01-05T15:55:00Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > I wonder if she had an onion on her belt. Well, that was the fashion at the time… [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/was-aunt-bee-a-spinster-widow/479686.md?page=2)