<P> Opie has several girlfriends including, in his boyhood, Karen Burgess (Ronda Jeter) and, in his teens, Mary Alice Carter (Morgan Brittany, credited by her real name, Suzanne Cupito). He also develops crushes on Barney Fife's sweetheart Thelma Lou and on his father's sweetheart Helen Crump . </P> <P> On the spin - off series Mayberry R.F.D., Helen and Andy marry and later in the series, Helen gives birth to Opie's half - brother, Andrew Jackson Taylor, Jr . </P> <P> When Opie is "almost 12" he runs away from Mayberry by boarding a jet airplane in Raleigh under false pretenses, and flies to California to see Gomer Pyle and join the Marines in a 1966 episode of Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C. . </P> <P> During his teens, Opie has a few jobs around Mayberry . He works in the drug store, and, in another episode, works as a delivery boy at the grocery store . He also plays in a rock band with his friends and has a paying gig at a teen party . In a later color episode, Opie makes college plans with dentistry as his career choice . </P>

Who is opie's mother on the andy griffith show