<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> <P> Opie's mother is mentioned only once in the series . In "Wedding Bells for Aunt Bee", Andy tells Opie he had a love for the boy's mother similar to the love Aunt Bee feels for her beau . Other than this one mention, Opie's mother is non-existent on the show; there are no photographs of her in the house, or other souvenirs, and no one mentions a grave . In the backdoor pilot episode from The Danny Thomas Show, viewers learn Andy lost Opie's mother when the boy was "the least little speck of a baby," indicating that Mrs. Taylor either left the family or she passed away when Opie was a baby . On a "Mayberry RFD" episode, viewers learn that Opie's former teacher and stepmother Helen gave birth to Andy Taylor, Jr, who is christened in Mayberry . </P> <P> In the 1986 made - for - TV reunion movie Return to Mayberry, Ron Howard reprised his role as a now - adult Opie, who has become a newspaper writer . The plot was driven by his father's return to see Opie's wife give birth to their first child . Half - brother Andy Jr. does not appear nor was he mentioned . </P>

Who was opie's mother on the andy griffith show
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