Mt. Airy is Andy Griffith's hometown, and the inspiration for Mayberry. I thought this was a rather upbeat article at a time when Rush, O'Lielly and Coulter are screaming even louder than ever. She's 81 now, but Thelma Lou was a looker, and some mighty hot stuff in this (then) youngster's opinion. Barney, you sly dog, you. . .
". . .The woman who played Thelma Lou on "The Andy Griffith Show" moved more than 2,100 miles to Mount Airy -- Griffith's hometown and one of the inspirations for the fictional Mayberry.
Lynn knows this ain't Mayberry either. It never existed, really.
But she figures this picturesque town in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains is about as close to Mayberry as she's going to get. In this life, anyway.
"There's NO place like it, unless it's heaven," she says over a lunch of hot coffee and a hamburger with onions at a local country club.
Despite a career that spanned more than a half century and saw her starring opposite such luminaries as Bette Davis and Natalie Wood, Lynn remains best known for her turn as Deputy Barney Fife's steady girl.
Though she was in just 25 episodes and made her final appearance 41 years ago, Lynn continues to be adored by legions of Andy Griffith Show Rerun Watchers Club members and sought after by nostalgia seekers. Like other veterans of a show whose scripts have been used in college courses and Sunday school lessons, she has basked in Mayberry's benign afterglow.
Nowhere does that reflected light shine brighter than in Mount Airy. . ."
http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/TV/10/02/backtomayberry.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch