ANDY GRIFFITH Actress Betty Lynn’s USO Career: ‘She Loved Her Country’
By Movieguide® Contributor
Betty Lynn is remembered for her work on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, playing Deputy Barney Fife’s girlfriend Thelma Lou. However, the actress used her talents to cheer up the troops during World War II?
Lynn died last year at the age of 95. Before her death, she was working on an autobiography with friends Jim Clark and Tim McAbee.
The book, “Becoming Thelma Lou – My Journey to Hollywood, Mayberry, and Beyond,” was published posthumously earlier this month.
In the book, one of Lynn’s proudest achievements is revealed: her time as a USO performer for World War II troops. She began performing in 1944, going overseas to entertain troops. According to a statement from The Andy Griffith Museum, Lynn is “thought to be the only American woman to have traveled the dangerous Burma Road during the war.”
Lynn reached out to the USO when she was just 18, and had to get permission from her mother to join. Understandably, she was a little hesitant, but Lynn reminded her “if I were a boy, they would make me go.”
“I was very patriotic, as most people in those days were, and I wanted to do something for the war effort,” Lynn wrote of her decision to join the USO. “I convinced Mother that this was what I wanted to do. Even though Mother was very scared for me… she signed the papers allowing me to join the USO.”
The actress toured the world, from Morocco to Cairo to Tehran. She even slept with a pistol underneath her pillow, just in case of trouble.
“I was in awe of hearing her stories,” said McAbee. “This was a young lady straight out of high school who put herself in very difficult situations. She chose to travel and perform for soldiers and visit them in hospitals. All she wanted to do was try and cheer them up. It didn’t matter if she found herself in harsh terrains or if temperatures were over 100 degrees. She was a very proud [patriot] and wanted to serve in any way she could. And she was just as proud of that as anything else she did in Hollywood, if not more.
“She explained to me that she was always patriotic,” he continued. “She loved her country. She wanted to do her part. And she chose to go. Even towards the end of her life, she would become emotional just talking about those hospital visits. She would describe how she would meet one soldier at a hospital, but the next day, when she returned, that soldier was no longer there. He had passed. It always made her incredibly sad.”
After her time with the USO, Lynn moved to New York to launch her acting career. She was soon cast in THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW, and the rest is history.
“Betty Lynn loved to entertain — and she did just that in her life,” McAbee concluded. “But I hope that in reading her life story, people might adopt some of her lessons of gratitude, of giving back and counting one’s blessings in life. She never took anything for granted. She worked hard and was successful, but she was just grateful. She was passionate and found solace in her family and faith. I think we could all learn a lot from Betty Lynn.”
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