TV work continued, never straying far from her wholesome image, with recurring roles on Family Affair (1966) and My Three Sons (1960) and guest parts on The Farmer's Daughter (1963), The Smith Family (1971) and Little House on the Prairie (1974). The producers were thinking of keeping her on the show but Betty felt her role was incomplete, without her connection to Don Knotts, after Barney Fife left. She became part of the small-town ensemble for five seasons - until Knotts officially left the series to try out, full-time, in motion pictures. While on hiatus from the Disney series, "Texas John Slaughter" (1959), Betty tested and won the recurring role of Deputy Barney Fife's steady girl on Andy Griffith's homespun series. She still appeared occasionally on the larger screen but, for the most part, was either unbilled or the pictures themselves were obscure. Betty instead focused on 50s TV and also returned to the stage with a production of "The Moon Is Blue" (1954). After appearing again in pictures starring Clifton Webb and Bette Davis ( Cheaper by the Dozen (1950) and Payment on Demand (1951), respectively), her blossoming film career lost major ground. She continued the momentum, all in a same airy vein, as the bobby-soxer daughter of stars Loretta Young in Mother Is a Freshman (1949) and Fred MacMurray and Maureen O'Hara in Father Was a Fullback (1949). After another minor part in Apartment for Peggy (1948), she earned a featured part playing kid sister to Barbara Bates in June Bride (1948) starring Bette Davis and Robert Montgomery. Betty made her movie debut in a small, sprightly role in the classic Clifton Webb comedy Sitting Pretty (1948). In the late 1940s, after being "discovered" in the short-lived Broadway production of "Park Avenue," the fresh-faced Betty was signed on as a starlet for Twentieth Century Fox and appeared in several of their popular movies, billed herself briefly as "Betty Ann Lynn" before abruptly dropping her middle name from the credits. She even entertained the troops with her light soprano at USO tent shows towards the end of World War II. Betty came from a musical background as the daughter of a singer and began her career as a young teen performing in both supper clubs and on Broadway in such musical productions as "Walk with Music" (1940) and "Oklahoma!," the latter as a dancing replacement. While Betty enjoyed other entertainment outlets such as film and the stage, it is her "Thelma Lou" character that remains indelibly etched in the minds of all her fans. It took a second reunion decades later to finally get those two characters married. She is pleasantly remembered for playing TV's sweet-as-apple-pie "Thelma Lou," who had the tough end of the bargain as the ever-patient girlfriend of Don Knotts's neurotic "Barney Fife" character on The Andy Griffith Show (1960). Her name is as light, breezy and innocent as the characters she played on film and TV. Missouri born-and-bred Betty Ann Lynn was born in Kansas City.
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