George Smith Lindsey

 George Smith Lindsey (December 17, 1928 – May 6, 2012)

Lindsey was best known for his role as Goober Pyle on The Andy Griffith Show, Mayberry R.F.D. and his subsequent tenure on Hee-Haw. After graduating from college he enlisted in the United States Air Force and was stationed at Ramey AFB in Puerto Rico. After his discharge, he taught for a year at Hazel Green High School in Hazel Green, Alabama, while waiting to be accepted by the American Theater Wing in New York City in 1956. After graduating from the Wing and performing in two Broadway plays, "Wonderful Town" and "All American", he moved to Los Angeles in 1962. He got parts in TV series of the day including Gunsmoke, The Rifleman, The Real McCoys, The Twilight Zone, Daniel Boone, Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and three episodes of The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, before he got the role he would become famous for as "Goober" on the The Andy Griffith Show. After Andy Griffith left his television show, CBS retooled it as Mayberry R.F.D. and Lindsey played the same character, until CBS cancelled the program in 1971. In his autobiography, Lindsey said though Mayberry R.F.D. gave his character more to do, he never felt the show's writing was up to the standards of The Andy Griffith Show.

Lindsey also raised over $1,000,000 for Alabama Special Olympics through 17 years of the George Lindsey Celebrity Weekend and Golf Tournament in Montgomery, Alabama and another $50,000 for the Alabama Association of Retarded Citizens, and participated as Head Coach-Winter Games in the Minneapolis, Minnesota Special Olympics National Competition. He established and perpetuated the George Lindsey Academic Scholarships at University of North Alabama. In 1992, the university gave him an honorary doctorate. George Lindsey died on May 6, 2012 in Nashville, Tennessee following a brief, unspecified illness. He was 83. He is buried at Oak Hill Cemetery in his hometown of Jasper, Alabama.