Betty Lynn, Barney's Girlfriend Thelma Lou on 'The Andy Griffith Show,' Dies at 95

[KY_EnviroGuy]

5. RIP, Betty Lynn. She was also a WW2 USO heroine.

From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Lynn

Snip1....

USO tour

When she was 17, Lynn auditioned to participate in United Service Organizations entertainment. At age 18 she was part of a USO tour in the China Burma India Theater. She realized the gravity of the situation when a Marine gave her a pistol saying, "You might need this."

Her activities on the tour included visiting patients in hospitals and singing requests from a repertoire of 725 songs. She also met recently released prisoners of war from Rangoon, and she was told by a doctor, "Most of them will be out of their minds in six months."

Back in the day, I would have seen The Andy Griffith Show only in black and white, so I would not have known she was a red head.

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On Broadway, she appeared in Walk with Music (1940), Oklahoma! (1943), and Park Avenue (1946). She was discovered in a Broadway production by Darryl F. Zanuck and signed to 20th Century Fox. A clause in her contract allowed the studio to drop her at six-month intervals, leading to recurring concerns for Lynn. She said, "I was a redhead with freckles and didn’t have a bosom. I prayed so hard they’d keep picking me up."

KY.........