We leap back to March 7, 2008 for this reprise. Nothing much has changed. I'm still in touch with Betty Lynn, who now lives back in Mt. Airy, North Carolina — a city that has modeled a lot of itself on Mayberry. As one of the few cast members who's still alive — and the only one in residence — she is a local celebrity, present at every important event. I keep waiting for a comic book convention in that area to invite me as a guest so I can go see her. Here's the story you'll like…
I recently found an old photo in my files and I thought you might enjoy hearing the tale behind it. That's not it up above. We'll get to it.
Around 1958 at the tender age of six, I came down with Scarlet Fever, a nasty little disease that had me confined to bed for several months. Most of this was spent reading — my obsession with comic books became especially acute during this period — and my father borrowed a little black-and-white TV from someone and set it up in my room so I could watch my favorite shows. He did this when he wasn't scurrying out to buy me more comic books or more comic books or more comic books. Did I ever tell you what a terrific father I had? Nicest man in the world and that's not just my opinion. They had a big vote and he won in a landslide.
One program that I watched often was Disneyland, the Walt Disney extravaganza that was then on ABC, and I especially watched it the weeks they featured a recurring western series called Texas John Slaughter. Every third or fourth week, the show would be given over to the adventures of the pioneer/cowboy hero, who was played by a handsome actor named Tom Tryon. More importantly, his wife was played by a wonderful actress named Betty Lynn. Betty has had a splendid career in films and television, working with practically everyone since the days she was a child star under contract to Twentieth-Century Fox, but if you know of her, it's probably for one role in particular. After Mr. Disney stopped making episodes of Texas John Slaughter, she went over and took the role of Thelma Lou, lady friend of Barney Fife (Don Knotts) on The Andy Griffith Show.
Why was I so interested in Betty Lynn? Easy. She lived next door to us. Betty was like my surrogate aunt. I still talk to her all the time and treat her as one would treat a close relative. A lovely woman…and she was not only our neighbor, not only a TV and movie star…she was even, in a Dell comic book drawn by my future collaborator Dan Spiegle, a comic book character!
One day, Tom Tryon was visiting her. Mr. Tryon later got out of acting and became a very successful author, but this was back when he was not only acting but Texas John Slaughter was a hit series and he was a pretty big star. Before they left for wherever they were going, Betty happened to mention to him that the little boy who lived next door was quite ill. Tryon instantly said, "Well, let me go visit him," and they came over…
…and you want to know what I remember of that visit? Absolutely nothing. Because I slept through it.
I'd been given some sort of medication that knocked me out and my parents were unable to wake me up to meet Tom "Texas John Slaughter" Tryon. They finally gave up and it was only later that evening, when I finally did come out of my drug-induced coma, that they told me he'd been there.
So that's the story of how I didn't meet a then-famous TV star…though I do have a souvenir of his visit. Look at what he left me!