Maggie Peterson Dies: ‘The Andy Griffith Show’ Actress Was 81

deadline.com:

Maggie Peterson, an actress who made a lasting impression as the sweet-natured, occasionally flirtatious mountain girl Charlene Darling on The Andy Griffith Show in the 1960s, died Sunday, May 15, in Colorado, her family has announced.“It is with great sorrow that we report that our dear Aunt Maggie died yesterday afternoon,” the family posted on Facebook today. “She passed peacefully in her sleep with her family present.”Although she appeared on only five episodes of the classic rural sitcom in the Charlene role, Peterson was among the show’s most familiar and memorable recurring cast members, often joining her onscreen family The Darlings (played by real-life bluegrass group The Dillards, along with actor Denver Pyle as patriarch Briscoe Darling) in singalongs.Peterson developed a catchphrase with her repeated entreaties about the sentimental impact of outrageously titled song suggestions, as in an the following exchange with Pyle’s character:Briscoe: “How ’bout ‘Don’t Hit Your Grandma with a Great Big Stick’?”Charlene: “No, Paw!

That one makes me cry!”Other songs that made Charlene cry: “Slimy River Bottom,” “Boil that Cabbage Down” and “Keep Your Money in Your Shoes and It Won’t Get Wet.”In one episode, Peterson’s Charlene was betrothed, by mountain custom, to an unwitting Sheriff Andy Taylor (Griffith), while in a later episode it was Charlene’s infant daughter that was betrothed to Andy’s young son Opie (Ron Howard).With her appearances as Charlene from 1963 to 1966, Peterson became a de facto member of Griffith’s unofficial repertory of actors, returning to the sitcom and its spin-offs Gomer Pyle: USMC and Mayberry R.F.D.