The late Jim Nabors, 87, known largely as a singer and actor during the 1960s and 1970s, made an impression on quite a few neighbors during the 1950s, by way of his activities in North Augusta.
Nabors, who underwent a liver transplant in 1994 after contracting hepatitis B, died peacefully at his home in Hawaii on Thursday after his health had declined for the past year, said his husband, Stan Cadwallader, who was by his side.
Beverly Blevins, the director of adult ministries at Grace United Methodist Church in North Augusta, confirmed that Nabors made his presence known in the 1950s to her mother, Mary Blitchington, who was the congregation's organist and choir director.
"He joined the choir, and she needed somebody to sing for a Good Friday service," Blevins recalled. "She had never really heard him sing before, and he raised his hand and volunteered to sing, and she nervously met with him before the service, and when he got up to sing, she almost fell off the organ bench when she heard him sing for the first time."
Nabors, a native of Sylacauga, Alabama, had local roles that included working at WJBF-TV (singing live with local favorite Flo Carter on the "Today in Dixie" show), in Augusta, and at The White Midget, a restaurant on Georgia Avenue, in North Augusta.
FILE - In this Jan. 31, 1991 file photo, actor Jim Nabors, front row center, best known for his role as television's Gomer Pyle on "The Andy G…
Known as "Jimmy" Nabors at the time, he was also a film-cutter at the TV station, helping with the Lewis family's weekly bluegrass/gospel show, and lived in North Augusta, with the White Midget's owners, his aunt and uncle, Sarah and James Newman, said local historian Milledge Murray, of North Augusta.
Nabors, after being discovered by Andy Griffith while singing in a California nightclub, went on to fame in 1962 as gas station attendant Gomer Pyle, in "The Andy Griffith Show." He took a step further in comedy TV as the star of "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.," and lived in Hawaii for most of his later life, owning and operating a macadamia farm. He died Thursday at home in Hawaii.
An Associated Press report recalled Nabors as offering a "booming baritone," and being able to move stunningly from "homespun humor" to "full-throated operatic arias."
North Augusta resident Sally McKibben, also a longtime member of the Grace congregation, recalled seeing Nabors in person during a 1980 Hawaii visit, attending one of his shows during the Christmas season.
McKibben was one of several women who managed to be called up on stage with Nabors. "I said, 'Well, we're members of the same church, and we haven't heard from you in a long time, and … you haven't renewed your pledge to the church.'"
She added, "I just laughed. It was a big hit."
Nabors added some humor, arranging for McKibben and the other ladies on stage to dance across the stage while a "stripper" theme was played, with feather boas in the mix, to the audience's delight.
"I never saw him after that. He was quite a character," McKibben recalled. "I never got to sing with him, but I got to dance with him."
FILE - In this May 25, 2014 file photo, Jim Nabors waves to fans after singing before the start of the 98th running of the Indianapolis 500 In…
More about Jim Nabors
Nabors became an instant success when he joined "The Andy Griffith Show" in the early 1960s. The character of Gomer Pyle, the unworldly, lovable gas pumper who would exclaim "Gollllll-ly!" proved so popular that in 1964 CBS starred him in "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C."
In the spinoff, which lasted five seasons, Gomer left his hometown of Mayberry to become a Marine recruit. His innocence confounded irascible Sgt. Vince Carter, played by Frank Sutton.
Audiences saw another side of Nabors in appearances in TV variety programs – his booming baritone. The contrast between his homespun humor ("The tornado was so bad a hen laid the same egg twice") and his full-throated operatic arias was stunning.
For two seasons beginning in 1969, CBS presented "The Jim Nabors Hour," on which he joshed with guest stars, did sketches with Sutton and fellow "Gomer" veteran Ronnie Schell, and sang country and opera.
Offstage, Nabors retained some of the awed innocence of Gomer. At the height of his fame in 1969, he admitted, "For the first four years of the series, I didn't trust my success. Every weekend and on every vacation, I would take off to play nightclubs and concerts, figuring the whole thing would blow over some day.
"You know somethin'? I still find it difficult to believe this kind of acceptance. I still don't trust it."
During the 1970s he moved to Hawaii, buying a 500-acre macadamia ranch. He still did occasional TV work, and in the late 1970s, he appeared 10 months annually at Hilton hotels in Hawaii. The pace gave him an ulcer.
"I was completely burned out," he later recalled. "I'd had it with the bright lights."
Nabors was an authentic small-town Southern boy, born James Thurston Nabors in Sylacauga, Alabama, in 1930, son of a police officer. Boyhood attacks of asthma required long periods of rest, during which he learned to entertain his playmates with vocal tricks.
After graduating from the University of Alabama, he worked in New York City for a time, and later, in Chattanooga, Tennessee, where he was an assistant film editor and occasional singer at a TV station.
In 1991, Nabors got a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame in ceremonies attended by pals Carol Burnett, Loni Anderson, Phyllis Diller and Florence Henderson. His reaction? "Gollll-ly!"
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
