* June 12: Rodney Dillard & the Dillard Band perform at the Bean Blossom Bluegrass Festival in Bean Blossom, Ind.

* June 15: Mayberry 101 author Neal Brower kicks off his summer lecture series about TAGS with a discussion of the “Fun Girls” episode (“Hello, doll!”), starting at 2 p.m., in the Andy Griffith Museum Theatre in Mount Airy, N.C. Admission is included with Andy Griffith Museum admission ($8 for adults, $6 for ages 12 and under). Visit www.andygriffithmuseum.org or call (336) 786-1604.

* June 15: Roland White and his band perform at 9 p.m. at the Station Inn in Nashville, Tenn.

* June 21: Betty Lynn greets fans at the Andy Griffith Museum 1:00-3:00 p.m. She will have 8 x 10 photos available for autographing ($10). For info, visit the website at www.andygriffithmuseum.orgor call (336) 786-1604.

* July 13 and 14: The Roland White Band performs at the 9th Annual Bluegrass on the Green in Frankfort, Ill.

* July 19: Betty Lynn greets fans at the Andy Griffith Museum 1:00-3:00 p.m. She will have 8 x 10 photos available for autographing ($10). For info, visit the website at www.andygriffithmuseum.orgor call (336) 786-1604.

* July 19-21: 7th Annual Mayberry Meet-Up in Mount Airy, N.C.  Here’s the link to more info on the event’s Facebook page, and here’s a link (also on the Facebook page) to the online registration form. The event coincides nicely (and not by accident) with Betty Lynn’s meet-and-greet at the Andy Griffith Museum on Friday (see above) and Neal Brower’s lecture at the Museum on Saturday (see below).

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* July 20: Mayberry 101 author Neal Brower’s second summer lecture about TAGS finds him talking about “The Education of Ernest T. Bass,” starting at 2 p.m., in the Andy Griffith Museum Theatre in Mount Airy, N.C. Admission is included with Andy Griffith Museum admission ($8 for adults, $6 for ages 12 and under). Visit www.andygriffithmuseum.org or call (336) 786-1604.

* July 27: Rodney Dillard and the Dillard Band perform at Hazzard Fest at Rogersville City Park in Rogersville, Tenn. For info, visit www.hazzardfest.com.

* Aug. 10: Mayberry 101 author Neal Brower wraps up his summer lecture series about TAGS with a discussion of the “Andy’s English Valet” episode, starting at 2 p.m., in the Andy Griffith Museum Theatre in Mount Airy, N.C. Admission is included with Andy Griffith Museum admission ($8 for adults, $6 for ages 12 and under).

Visit www.andygriffithmuseum.org or call (336) 786-1604.

* Sept. 19: Karen Knotts performs “Tied Up in Knotts” at a luncheon show from 1:30 to 3:30 at Wright’s Chicken Farm Restaurant in Harrisville, R.I. The cost is $69 for the all-inclusive round-trip motorcoach that is part of part of a group tour, or $45 for just the luncheon and show (drive yourself). For more info visit www.travelgrouptrips.com.

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* Sept. 23-29: 30th Annual Mayberry Days in Mount Airy, N.C. Tickets are already available for many of the week’s events, including for concerts by Rodney Dillard & the Dillard Band. LeRoy “Mack” McNees & Friends, and a presentation of “A Deputy’s Daughter” by Karen Knotts.

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Tickets are also available for The Emmett Golf Tournament (and the dinner and entertainment featuring comedian Henry Cho), concerts by Collin Raye, The Grascals, The VW Boys, The Embers, Envision and Legacy Motown Revue, as well as comedy performances by John Floyd (The Mouth of Mayberry) and James Gregory (“The Funniest Man in America”). Tickets are also available for Professor Brower’s Lecture/TAGSRWC Meeting and Colonel Tim’s Talent Time.

Other guest stars and much more are TBA.  For advance tickets (order early and get those extra-good seats!), visit www.mayberrydays.com. And of course, many parts of Mayberry Days, including assorted contests and performances and the parade, don’t require a ticket.

* Oct. 12: Rodney Dillard & the Dillard Band bring their Mayberry Moments show to Marion, Va., as part of the “Song of the Mountains” TV show.

* Nov. 2-7: Cruise to Mayberry 14 sets sail with Ronnie Schell (two episodes of “The Andy Griffith Show” and also Duke Slater on “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”) and Dixie Griffith (daughter of Andy) and a boatload of Mayberry tribute artists aboard Carnival’s Sunshine from Charleston to Nassau and Half Moon Cay in the Bahamas. For good measure, Elvis impersonator Wayne Euliss and bluegrass band Cane Mill Road will also entertain.

For more info, e-mail cruise organizer Sharon Euliss of All About Cruises at PWESJE@aol.com or call her at (336) 538-4926.

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**** News of Cast & Crew ****

We’re very sad to report the passing of actress Barbara Perry, who died of natural causes in Hollywood, Calif., on May 5. She was 97.

Barbara played memorable characters in four episodes of TAGS: “A Wife for Andy” (Lavinia), “Class Reunion” (Mary Lee), “The Pageant” (Doris Williams) and “The Return of Barney Fife” (Floss), as well as the Den Mother in “Gomer, the Good Samaritan” episode of “Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.”

Born Barbara Mae Perry to parents William (a musician and conductor) and Victoria (for a time, a soprano in the chorus in New York’s Metropolitan Opera) in Norfolk, Va., on June 22, 1921. Her first noted performance onstage is thought to be at age four as Trouble in a Metropolitan Opera production of Madame Butterfly.

Barbara and her family moved to Hollywood in the early 1930s, and Barbara developed a passion for acting, singing and especially dancing, with a particular devotion to tap.

Her 84-year span of working in films began in 1933 with John Wyler’s Counsellor at Law (starring John Barrymore and also including John Qualen, Mayberry’s Henry Bennett). Her last film role was in 2017 as Gift Shop Employee at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in an episode of “Baskets,” the acclaimed series starring Louie Anderson.

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Most of Barbara’s film work was in TV, ranging from a regular as Thelma Blackwood in “The Hathaways” in the early 1960s to multiple episodes of “Perry Mason,” “The Lucy Show,” “My Three Sons,” Bewitched” and “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” in which she played Pickles (wife of Morey Amsterdam’s Buddy Sorrell character) in two first-season episodes.

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Barbara also appeared in one-shot roles in a cross-section of other top TV shows from the 1950s through into the 2000s, including “The Donna Reed Show,” “The Fugitive,” “Family Affair,” “Adam-12,” “Barnaby Jones,” “St. Elsewhere,” “Newhart,” “Dallas,” “Murder She Wrote,” “Murphy Brown” (as one of Murphy’s revolving secretaries), “Married with Children” and “How I Met Your Mother.”

Her feature films included two gritty films for iconic director Samuel Fuller: Shock Corridor (also featuring James Best) in 1963 and The Naked Kiss in 1964. She also had roles in 1989’s Tap (with Gregory Hines and Sammy Davis Jr.) and the 1991 remake of Father of the Bride. And Barbara was memorable as the Wedding Singer in Back-up Plan (2010).

Barbara’s expertise in tap dance led to her performing in top venues through the United States, as well as in Europe. She became a sought-after dance teacher, including teaching a Master Class in Vienna during the 1990s.

Barbara had an extensive career on stage, including stints on Broadway, beginning with Swan Song at the Booth Theatre and If the Shoe Fits at the New Century Theatre (both in 1946) and including Happy as Larry (opposite Burgess Meredith) at the Coronet Theatre in 1950, Rumple (as dance partner with Eddie Foy Jr.) in 1957 at the Alvin Theatre (in the show immediately following Andy Griffith in No Time for Sergeants) and a week-long run of her solo Passionate Ladies at the Bijou Theatre in 1991.

Barbara’s stage career took her from Broadway to London (including as a featured performer in Zip Goes a Million at the Palace Theatre in 1951) and from Los Angeles and St. Louis to Pittsburgh and Atlanta.

Passionate Ladies, which Barbara wrote and for which she also performed the stories of five artistic women from history, became her signature work. Beginning in 1979, she performed the one-woman show to great acclaim to audiences worldwide. The show was recognized for Best Performance by the Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Awards and for Best Writing by the Drama-Logue Theatre Awards.

Barbara also maintained a steady career of doing commercials for TV.  Though she worked as a performer for most of her life, Barbara’s innate interest in learning prompted her to go back to school and earn an associate degree at a community college in L.A. during the 1970s. In October 2018, Barbara received the Founders Award from SAG-AFTRA.

Barbara was married to Bennett Warren James from 1953 to 1961. They had a daughter, Laurel Lee, who survives Barbara, along with granddaughter Audrey Lee. Barbara was married to legendary animator Art Babbitt (creator of Disney’s Goofy and animation director for Pinocchio and Dumbo, among animation work in countless other classics, including The Incredible Mr. Limpet) from 1967 until his death in 1992. Stepdaughters Karin and Michele from that marriage also survive.

Barbara stayed in regular communication with TAGSRWC members and others in the Mayberry world from the 1980s through recent times. She was able to attend only one of the public fan-organized cast reunion events, but it was a special one: The 40th Anniversary Mayberry Cast Reunion show in Pelham, Ala., in October 2000. (It remains the largest gathering of TAGS stars for a public event to date.) Barbara was thrilled to participate, and fans and her fellow cast members were equally delighted.

In each of her Mayberry roles (all remarkably similar characters, just with different names), Barbara was always effervescent. Her characters were as close to town cheerleaders as Mayberry ever had, much as Barbara herself was in life–ever ready to support whatever positive happenings were on tap.

Thank you for the dance, Barbara!

Note: Barbara’s family has posted this information about services planned for Barbara:

Saying “Auf Wiedersehen!” to Barbara Perry Babbitt! Her final curtain! …

A memorial service in memory of Barbara will be held at 1:30 p.m. on July at Hollywood First United Methodist Church (in the same Chapel where she married Art Babbitt). A reception with coffee and cookies will follow in Grant Hall.

All of Barbara’s friends and colleagues are invited. The family hopes to share this special, but casual, service with you. Pass this invitation on to those who may also wish to be there.

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We’re also sad to note the passing of Bobby Diamond on May 15.  He died in Thousand Oaks, Calif. He was 75.

Bobby played Evan Hendricks (son of butter-and-egg man Orville Hendricks) in “Aunt Bee’s Invisible Beau” (Episode #154).

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Born Robert LeRoy Diamond in Los Angeles on August 23, 1943, he was the son of a real estate broker and homemaker. He also had an older sister, Arlene, and a younger brother, Gary. It was his mother, Pearl, who had the notion that Hollywood might be a good track for her son.

Bobby is best known for his starring role as Joey Newton in the hit TV series “Fury” from 1955 to 1960. Prior to “Fury,” Bobby played mostly small, often uncredited parts in sometimes big productions, including Cecil B. De Mille’s The Greatest Show on Earth in 1952 (“I’m 25 rows up with a bag of popcorn in my hand,” he once told the L.A. Times. “You have to look real, real close.”) and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953).

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Bobby earned good money on “Fury”–$350 per episode at the start and $750 by the end, but Highland Dale, who played Fury and was the same age as Bobby, made more hay. He earned $1,500 at the beginning and $4,500 by the final season, which might in part explain why Highland Dale as the title character appeared in only 81 episodes vs. Bobby’s full 116 episodes.

Smallish parts resumed beyond “Fury,” including his episode of TAGS. Notable roles included as Buddy in “Westinghouse Playhouse” (aka “The Nanette Fabray Show”)  for all 26 episodes in 1961 (the same year that he graduated from Ulysses S. Grant High School in Van Nuys) and “In Praise of Pip,” a 1963 episode of “The Twilight Zone” with Jack Klugman and Billy Mumy. He also played Duncan Gillis in seven episodes during the final season (1962-63) of “The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis.”

Bob, as he preferred to be called once he began seeking adult roles, was cast as the lead in one feature–as paratrooper Eddie Slocum in Airborne (1962). After the chute for his career as a leading man didn’t fully open, he continued with his career in supporting roles in everything from “Mr. Ed” and “The Fugitive” to “Lassie” and “My Three Sons” (for which he had earlier and unwisely turned down the role of son Robbie Douglas, because it was a shorter commute to instead play Buddy on “The Nanette Fabray Show”).

Bob always acknowledged that his mother had been the “architect” of his show-business career. When she died in 1963, his career lost much of its momentum, largely because Bob didn’t have interest in dealing with the business side of show business that his mother had always handled so well.

Though he continued to have small parts and cameos in TV and movies (including the campy horror flick Scream in 1981), Bob largely turned to a career path outside of acting.

After earning his B.A. in broadcast journalist in 1965 (just weeks after his TAGS episode aired) from what is now California State University, Northridge (where he was an accomplished gymnast on the steel rings), Bob went on to earn his law degree in 1970 from what is now the University of West Los Angeles and began practicing criminal and civil law (specializing in personal injury and medical malpractice) in Woodland Hills in 1972. (Actor Kelsey Grammer was among his clients, as were some of his fellow child stars of the 1950s and 1960s who had remained friends through the years.) Like his father, Bob also had a knack for real estate investment.

Bob’s acting and legal careers intersected between 1984 and 1986, when he appeared as an attorney in about two dozen episodes of TV’s “Divorce Court.”