Don Knotts Statue Destroyed Despite Calls of Fans

MOUNT AIRY, N.C. – A half-finished clay statue of Barney Fife has been destroyed, and the life of the man who comissioned it has been turned upside down.

Tom Hellebrand wanted to put up the statue of Don Knotts' character from "The Andy Griffith Show" in Mount Airy, North Carolina, the town that's the model for Mayberry. But Knotts' widow Francey wanted a statue put up in his hometown of Morgantown, West Virginia. And not a statue of Fife, but of Knotts, himself.

She and Hellebrand couldn't agree and he had the statue destroyed.

He now says he's so "emotionally drained" from the battle, he's moving out of Mount Airy.