RIP, Goober Pyle!
A beloved TV icon is gone. Via The Tennessean:
George Lindsey, most widely known for playing Goober Pyle on the iconic television series The Andy Griffith Show, died at 12:05 a.m. Sunday in Nashville after an extended hospitalization. He was 83.
As long as his health allowed, George Lindsey was still making people smile. The Hee Haw star showed up at Ray Stevens’ CD release party Feb. 28 at The Rutledge in Nashville to lend support to his good friend and fellow comedian. Stevens beamed from the stage as he thanked Mr. Lindsey for being there.
“He was in a wheelchair that night and he was really going out of his way to show up for that,” says Stevens, who was friends with Lindsey for 35 years. “That’s the kind of friend he was. He was on his last legs that night.”
Actor Andy Griffith said in a statement that accompanied the family’s Sunday-morning announcement of Mr. Lindsey’s death: “George Lindsey was my friend. I had great respect for his talent and his human spirit. In recent years, we spoke often by telephone. Our last conversation was a few days ago. We would talk about our health, how much we missed our friends who passed before us and usually about something funny. I am happy to say that as we found ourselves in our eighties, we were not afraid to say, ‘I love you.’ That was the last thing George and I had to say to each other. ‘I love you.’ “
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Mr. Lindsey is survived by son George Lindsey Jr. of Woodland Hills, Calif.; daughter Camden Jo Lindsey Gardner, her husband, Russell, and their sons, Carson Cole Gardner and Andrew Liam Gardner, all of Valencia, Calif.; a cousin, Rebecca Weber of Gadsden, Ala.; and his dear companion of many years, Anne Wilson of Nashville, Tenn.
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In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made in Mr. Lindsey’s memory to: Special Olympics Alabama, 880 South Court St., Montgomery, AL 36104; UNA Foundation, with a designation to the George Lindsey Film and Digital Media Scholarship, UNA Box 5113, Florence, AL 35632-0001; or another charity of the donor’s choice.
I’ve been putting off starting my Andy Griffith Show series DVD collection for a while now. May get that cranked up now, in honor of Lindsey. Loved that show, and he was a true talent.
Thoughts and prayers go out to his family. He will be missed.