Betty Lynn, who played Thelma Lou on ‘The Andy Griffith Show’, dies at 95

(CNN) – Betty Lynn, best known for playing Barney Fife’s girlfriend, Thelma Lou, on “The Andy Griffith Show,” died Saturday, reported the Andy Griffith Museum. He was 95 years old.

Although she was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and spent most of her career in Southern California, in 2006 Lynn moved to Mt. Airy, North Carolina, the city that inspired Mayberry de Griffith.

She served as an ambassador for the Andy Griffith Museum, regularly appearing at the museum to speak to fans and sign autographs.

“I love watching old shows and I still laugh out loud,” Lynn told the HuffPost in 2013. “Those days were some of the happiest of my life.”

Actors Don Knotts, who played the role of Barney Fife, right, along with George Lindsey, who played Goober, and Betty Lynn, left, who played Thelma Lou, arrive for a reception at the Governor’s Mansion in Nashville, Tennessee, on Wednesday, June 27, 2001.

After several small roles in movies like “Cheaper by the Dozen” and on television series like “Disneyland,” Lynn first appeared as Thelma Lou in 1961.

Her character was often made nervous by the uptight personality of boyfriend Barney Fife, played by Don Knotts, but they continued to date for most of the series.

After two decades of on-and-off romance, they were finally married in the reunion television movie “Return to Mayberry” in 1986, the last appearance of the characters together on screen.

“I last saw her a few years ago, where she was still lighting up the room with positivity,” director Ron Howard, who played Sheriff Andy Taylor’s son, Opie, posted on Twitter. “It was great to have met her and worked with her.”