An autographed Gomer Pyle picture from Southern gentleman Jim Nabors
I opened a manila envelope and was flabbergasted to glimpse the signed corner of a color 8 x 10 photo. Sure enough, it was Jim Nabors rendering guileless hayseed Gomer Pyle in dress blues, the world’s worst Private First Class Marine under the command of exasperated Gunnery Sergeant Vince Carter [Frank Sutton]. His earlier season and a half stint as a gas station attendant at Wally’s Filling Station on The Andy Griffith Show was arguably funnier, with Nabors reacting in brilliant lunkhead fashion as the comic foil of a supposedly superior Deputy Barney Fife [Don Knotts]. Nabors willingly chose to depart Gomer Pyle, USMC while the TAGS spin-off was perched at No. 2 in the Nielsen ratings in 1969.
Going on the record with one of the last surviving Mayberry alums was a bust, but Nabors’ reply validated his gentlemanly, warm essence was not some put-on. “I am both surprised and flattered to receive a request for an interview,” wrote Nabors in an email forwarded by his representative. “But, I will kindly and politely decline to do the interview. I am retired and rarely if ever venture into the public light. I prefer it to be this way. Regards, Jim Nabors.”
Although acutely typecast in the acting department, Nabors’ baritone vocals anchored nearly two dozen easy listening albums for Columbia Records. Griffith had discovered him performing a nightclub act at the Horn on Santa Monica Boulevard and marveled at how Nabors could switch off his Alabama-ingrained drawl and stun an audience with his booming, opera-ready singing voice. According to Griffith, the transition was “electric” and “powerful.” Couch potatoes were introduced to it in “The Song Festers” episode as Gomer inadvertently sang while changing a car tire.
After supporting buddy Burt Reynolds in the back-to-back Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, Stroker Ace, and Cannonball Run II comedies, Nabors lived comfortably on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, with eventual husband Stan Cadwallader. A 500-acre macadamia nut and flower farm in Maui proved to be a prosperous investment, with Nabors selling it to the National Tropical Botanical Gardens. On Nov. 30, 2017, 13 months following our correspondence, Nabors departed this mortal realm at age 87 from natural causes. Against all odds, Nabors had undergone a successful liver transplant in 1994 to reverse the ravages of Hepatitis B, and the surgery left his immune system susceptible to further illnesses.
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