he learns she wears a wig (Seventh season: "Aunt Bee's Crowning Glory"). Hubert St. John is a visiting lecturer who becomes smitten with Aunt Bee because she resembles his deceased wife (Eighth season: "Aunt Bee and the Lecturer"). Aunt Bee and Clara Edwards Aunt Bee's closest friend in Mayberry is widow Clara Edwards (Hope Summers). Although Clara is a well-meaning woman, she often proves irksome when positioning herself as Bee's rival for the attentions of the single, older gentlemen passing through Mayberry. She vies with Bee in cooking contests and flower shows and replaces her in the town pageant when Bee realizes she has no talent for theatricals. Clara and Bee attended school together as girls, even playing on the same basketball team. They compose an anthem celebrating the good life in Mayberry and, in one episode, vacation in Mexico with their friend Myrtle. Clara is sometimes a petty and jealous woman, often ruining Bee's pleasure in one small thing or another with a dismissive sniff or an abrupt and cutting comment. Notes and references Bibliography The Andy Griffith Show: Complete Series Collection. Paramount, 2007. () Beck, Ken, and Clark, Jim. The Andy Griffith Show Book. St. Martin's Griffin, 2000. Kelly, Richard. The Andy Griffith Show. Blair, 1984. The Andy Griffith Show characters Fictional characters from North Carolina Fictional characters from West Virginia Television characters introduced in 1960 Female characters in television