I can only repeat what I was told, but on The Andy Griffith Show, Howard Morris, who played Ernest T. That’s the earliest I can point to where Frances was already getting to be persnickety. Eve Arden had trouble with her on The Eve Arden Show. Pop culture historian Geoffrey Mark, author of The Lucy Bookand Ella: A Biography of the Legendary Ella Fitzgerald, opines, “She was a very talented lady, but she was very difficult to work with and nobody could really figure it out. But that is generally not the husband’s point of view and I sympathize entirely with the man who wants his wife to be completely devoted to him and their children.” I know that many psychologists, particularly women psychologists, hold that a woman can have both a home and a career. To paraphrase Shakespeare, it was not that I loved him less, but I loved acting more.

I wanted to be both wife and actress, but learned quickly that this is impossible, at least in my specific case. However, in a 1964 interview with the Star-Gazette of Elmira, New York, she did reflect, “I married a man who was charming in every way, except that, being non-professional, he had little patience with my dedication to acting. Some have said that she was married to Russell Carpenter, member of the military, from 1928 until they divorced in 1933, while other sources claim she was never wed to anyone. There are conflicting reports on whether or not Frances was married during the early years of her career.

Aunt bee on andy griffith show