Andy Taylor is a widower at the start of The Andy Griffith Show. He raises his young son, Opie, in Mayberry while working as the town’s sheriff.
Andy’s wife had died before the series began, so the program presents him as a single parent rather than as a newlywed or divorcee. His unmarried household includes Opie and, for much of the series, his paternal aunt Bee Taylor—usually called Aunt Bee—who serves as housekeeper and helps care for the boy.
The show gives very few details about Andy’s late wife. Her name is never established during the series, and viewers do not see her in flashbacks or photographs. The backdoor pilot, “Danny Meets Andy Griffith,” indicates that she died when Opie was very young. Andy later dates Helen Crump, but their eventual marriage occurs near the end of the original show, not at its beginning. Thus “widower” is the precise canonical status for the opening premise.