I was under contract with Walt Disney at the time. I was co-starring in my second season of a show called, Texas John Slaughter. The Andy Griffith Show hired me to play Thelma Lou. I only worked when they called me. I would do an episode in two days and I got paid $500. After all the federal, state and local taxes were taken out and then my agent's commission I only got $200 some dollars per episode.

Andy [Griffith] and I spoke on the phone not too long before he died. I told him I loved him and he told me he loved me. He was a wonderful man.

Twenty years after the Andy Griffith Show when Andy did Matlock, he hired me for four episodes. I told him I wanted to develop an Aunt Bea type role for Matlock, but he was against it. I did appear on other popular TV shows, like Family Affair, My Three Sons, Barnaby Jones and Little House on the Prairie.

In 1986, when they made the TV movie, Return to Mayberry, Barney and Thelma Lou did get married!

George Lindsay who played Goober thought Andy Griffith Show limited his career.

Don Knotts left [Andy Griffith Show] to pursue a movie career, so once he was gone I left too.

I still stay in touch with Elinor Donahue. I've known Elinor since she was 14-years-old.