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The Late Southern Actor Andy Griffith was laid to rest on Roanoake Island in Dare, NC the SAME Day of his Death, Tuesday July 3, 2012.
Andy a WHITE North Carolina Native, and Democrat, was also a Proud Supporter of Pres. Barack Obama’s Election.
Pres. Obama’s Ethnicity did NOT matter to Andy, he just wanted a Democratic President to Win.
In 2008 Andy and his Co-Star “Son” Ron Howard (Opie) even filmed a Campaign for Pres. Obama.
Andy also filmed a more recent video expressing his Support for Pres. Obama’s Affordable Health Care Act.
What a Wonderful Display of Racial Equality & Acceptance.
Of course many people within North Carolina’s WHITE Power Structure Strongly Disapproved of Andy’s Endorsement of a BLACK Man leading this Country.
This includes both Democrats & Republicans.
If only other WHITE Citizens from the State of North Carolina, could be more like the late Andy Griffith, this region of the United States would begin to express Progress more rapidly.
Isn’t it time for North Carolina to Abandon the Klu Klux Klan's RACIST Philosophy and to Embrace Diversity. REAL, 21st Century Diversity?
R.I.P. Andy Samuel Griffith June 1, 1926 – July 3, 2012
Andy Griffith was a Democrat, and N.C. disapproved
So many people wanted to place Andy Griffith in the past, in a place
that never really was.
Griffith himself preferred to live in the present.
There was surprise and some disappointment when in 2008, Griffith reteamed with his TV son, Ron Howard, to reprise their roles in a black-and-white, tongue-in-cheek, pro-Obama video message.
The president, in a statement mourning Griffith, who died on Tuesday, said, “A performer of extraordinary talent, Andy was beloved by generations of fans and revered by entertainers who followed in his footsteps.”
Griffith supported another Democrat, N.C. Gov. Bev Perdue, in her campaign.
Counting down the days of her lame-duck tenure and fresh off the GOP legislature’s successful override on three bills she vetoed, she said in her statement: “Throughout his career, he represented everything that was good about North Carolina: a small town boy and UNC graduate who took a light-hearted approach to some of the attributes he grew up with and turned them into a spectacularly successful career.”
In 2010, an ad in support of health care legislation seriously dented Griffith’s approval numbers in his beloved North Carolina, a poll showed. Which was enough of a shock that a Democratic consultant suggested to the News & Observer, “It's a good time to call up Barney Fife.”
I get the feeling Griffith didn’t crave a sidekick at those moments; he mainly made up his own mind about things like that.
If he had done what a lot of folks, including me, wanted, he would have starred in more films like 1957’s “A Face in the Crowd.” That Elia Kazan classic revealed a dark heart beneath the lead character’s country charm while making prescient points about the dangers of media manipulation and the unleashed egos of the powerful.
Griffith instead preferred to serve up Southern comfort that confounded stereotypes without rocking the boat.
Griffith said in interviews that Mayberry was meant to be a throwback – and it was no doubt an escape for many – though its portrait of loving, understanding parents and respectful children who learned from their wiser, slyer elders was subversive in its own way. Perdue said, “In an increasingly complicated world, we all yearn for the days of Mayberry.”
Not all.
In the idealized small town of Mayberry, reminiscent of Griffith’s own Mount Airy, N.C., hometown, not much happened. When “The Andy Griffith Show” made its television debut in fall of 1960, of course, history-making change roiled the actor’s own North Carolina, with the image of Southern sheriff a ways off from Andy Taylor’s folksy friendliness.
Earlier that same year, four students from North Carolina A&T State University in Greensboro challenged segregation with the first sit-in, at a F.W. Woolworth lunch counter.
Mixing rose-colored fiction and real life, it would be nice to think Floyd the barber would have given those nice young men a shave and a haircut in Mayberry.
But not even Griffith believed that. A former colleague told me about a call back from Griffith to answer a question on race that he had stumbled on in an interview; it was about his decision to skirt that particular lesson in “The Andy Griffith Show.” It would have been the one thing Sheriff Andy could not have solved in a half-hour, he figured, so he left it alone, my friend reported.
But the man who thought a long time about that question lived to see his home state give a close victory to the black man he supported.
Andy Griffith Already Laid to Rest as President Obama Pays Respects, Tributes Keep Pouring In
Andy Griffith, who died this morning, has been buried on the grounds of his farm on North Carolina's Roanoke Island, according to Twiford Funeral Homes. A small group of family and friends held a private service beforehand.
But though Griffith was swiftly transported to his final resting place, the tributes to the Andy Griffith Show and Matlock star haven't ceased since news of his passing at 86 broke just hours ago, with everyone from James Van Der Beek to President Barack Obama paying their respects.
Andy Griffith buried shortly after death, source says
The body of Andy Griffith, a North Carolina native and actor who for years won over audiences with his folksy appeal, was buried Tuesday morning less than five hours after he died.
He passed away at around 7 a.m. ET at his home on Roanoke Island, authorities reported.
At the request of his family, Griffith's body was lowered into a grave on the island at about 11:30 a.m. ET, according to a funeral spokesperson who declined to be named, citing the sensitivity of the matter.
"It had been planned for some time," said the spokesperson, who declined to reveal where on the island the body was buried.
"This was the wish of his family."
Most known for his role as the sheriff of Mayberry on the CBS series "The Andy Griffith Show," Griffith died Tuesday after an unspecified illness and "has been laid to rest on his beloved Roanoke Island," the family said in a statement.
But the speed with which the public learned of his death and was informed of his burial seemed especially fast, according to some observers.
"It's not very common," said Larry F. Stegall, executive director of the state's Funeral Directors Association. "I don't recall having heard of it, and I've been here 32 years."
Traditional funeral customs often allow for a more extended period between death and burial, so family and friends may have more opportunity to visit and pay their respects.
Still, said Stegall, "the family's wishes are always abided by."
"Andy was a person of incredibly strong Christian faith and was prepared for the day he would be called Home to his Lord," Griffith's wife, Cindi, said in a statement on Tuesday.
A member of the Television Hall of Fame, Griffith also was inducted into the Christian Music Hall of Fame and Museum in 2007. His 1996 album, "I Love to Tell the Story -- 25 Timeless Hymns," netted him a Grammy Award.
Born in Mount Airy, North Carolina, in 1926, Griffith was a 1949 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received a degree in music.
President Obama Remembers Andy Griffith
Andy Griffith, who charmed audiences for half a century as an actor, comedian, and gospel singer, died today in his home in Manteo, North Carolina. He was 86.
Griffith, known for his iconic roles as the sheriff of Mayberry and the defense attorney Ben Matlock, was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.
This afternoon, President Obama marked his passing, saying, "A performer of extraordinary talent, Andy was beloved by generations of fans and revered by entertainers who followed in his footsteps."
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