Although we never saw her, I'm pretty sure we have in our minds eye a picture of her.
Please give us your description of Sarah.

Sarah is about 60 years old with hair about like Aunt Bees but more gray. She is about 5'6" tall and 200 pounds. Sixties style cat eye glasses and still lives with her mother.

I would say she is a mix of Aunt Bee and Emma Brand......

I always figured she was the twin sister of Fanny Tatum from The Waltons.

Tall, kind of skinny, and wears glasses.  Probably has gray hair and wears lots of showy costume jewelry--but not earrings.  Hard to listen in to conversations when you're wearing big earrings.

I believe she has a mole above the left side of her lip and little hairs on her chin!

Hmmm.  I always thought of her as younger for some reason.  Maybe in her 30s or 40s.

I also think she chews gum and blows bubbles whilst she talks.

Mary Wickes.

     I just figure she looks a lot like Juanita

Maybe more like this ?

Phil Sunkel wrote on May 15^th, 2011 at 11:01pm:

Maybe more like this ?

Exactilioso!

http://i233.photobucket.com/albums/ee149/farmboy_011/lily_tomlin_01.jpg

http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/57/tessie20the20russians20.th.jpg

To HistoryBuff.......... I believe that your posted photo is of "TESSY O'SHEA"..... an english actor.
She was the phone operator in the movie
The Russians are Coming............
Years ago, I hired her to work at EPCOT at the
U.K. Showcase..She was actually very good, did some comedy sketches. The guest from Great Britan went wild when they had a chance to meet,
and talk to her....................

uncle nat wrote on May 15^th, 2011 at 7:48pm:

I also think she chews gum and blows bubbles whilst she talks.

Maybe a pinch of snuff?  :o 

speaking of the telephone...do you notice whenever there's a long distance call made or taken in the show they tend to yell, like yelling is necessary to hear someone far away on the other end?

'He's FINE, just FINE!'   :)

Al Becker wrote on May 16^th, 2011 at 5:48pm:

speaking of the telephone...do you notice whenever there's a long distance call made or taken in the show they tend to yell, like yelling is necessary to hear someone far away on the other end? 'He's FINE, just FINE!'   :)

;DMy Dad does that with his cell phone.

Al Becker wrote on May 16^th, 2011 at 5:48pm:

they tend to yell

My grand parents Always did that, so I saw the humor in the skit.

Phil Sunkel wrote on May 15^th, 2011 at 11:01pm:

Maybe more like this ?

That's what I was thinking Phil.

Mary Grace wrote on May 16^th, 2011 at 6:24pm:

My Dad does that with his cell phone.

Mine too... with any phone.  He starts by yelling, then tapers off a little as he goes along.

Must be a generational thing.

Way back in the 60’s we would call my Grandparents who lives 250 miles away in Alabama. We had Southern Bell as our telephone company and my Grandparents had a small regional company called Pine Belt telephone. The connection was usually very bad so you did raise your voice to be heard. They were also on a party line up until about 1968 as well, in a small town you can learn a lot from a party line.  :o

Phil Sunkel wrote on May 16^th, 2011 at 10:55pm:

Mary Grace wrote on May 16th, 2011 at 6:24pm: My Dad does that with his cell phone.  Mine too... with any phone.  He starts by yelling, then tapers off a little as he goes along. Must be a generational thing.

I don't know, but I think it can also be said to be a gender thing. When I'm shopping at Target, virtually every woman has a cell phone planted at her ear and is TALKING LIKE THIS so everyone is subjected to hearing whatever inanities (is that a word?!) she's finding so important. Totally irritating!

imagineer wrote on May 16^th, 2011 at 12:57pm:

To HistoryBuff.......... I believe that your posted photo is of "TESSY O'SHEA"..... an english actor. She was the phone operator in the movie The Russians are Coming............ Years ago, I hired her to work at EPCOT at the U.K. Showcase..She was actually very good, did some comedy sketches. The guest from Great Britan went wild when they had a chance to meet, and talk to her....................

You're absolutely right, the pic I posted is of Tessie O'Shea as the town telephone operator in "The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming". That's one of my all-time favorite movies, and after seeing it for the first time in 1966 my mind's eye has forever since believed that's what Mayberry's Sarah would look & act like.

Uncle Ollie wrote on May 15^th, 2011 at 10:46am:

Sarah is about 60 years old with hair about like Aunt Bees but more gray. She is about 5'6" tall and 200 pounds. Sixties style cat eye glasses and still lives with her mother. I would say she is a mix of Aunt Bee and Emma Brand......

Who You Calling 200 POUNDS!?   >:(
http://i77.photobucket.com/albums/j70/TommyK1/GA/ga100921Sarah1.jpg
Sarah Trendell-Kimball of Hooterville.


I'll have you know I only tip the scales at 97 in my soaking wet bikini! 

I've mentioned this before here.  We had crank phones in my little town until I got to high school, which was in 1966.  You had to have the operator, who had the only dial in town, call anyone outside our town.  Our phone numbers were like this:  8 on 32, which was phone 8 on line 32.  Our 'ring' was three long rings followed by two short rings.  That's how we knew the call was for our house.  Two spinster sister were the operators.  We had to turn a crank to get their attention.

Pierre wrote on May 17^th, 2011 at 1:16pm:

Sarah Trendell-Kimball of Hooterville.

That's about what I thought Sarah looked like in Mayberry!   

I wonder if I remembered Sarah from Hooterville and that's where my thinking of what Mayberry's Sarah looked like came from?

We had the crank telephone when I was growing up too.  At one point while my grandmother was talking on the phone to somebody she received an electrical shock.  (The phone was on the wall on the screened-in back porch.)

From then on, my grandmother would hold the earpiece about 8 inches away from her ear--fearful of getting shocked!!

Floyd wrote on May 18^th, 2011 at 6:16am:

Pierre wrote on May 17th, 2011 at 1:16pm: Sarah Trendell-Kimball of Hooterville. That's about what I thought Sarah looked like in Mayberry!    I wonder if I remembered Sarah from Hooterville and that's where my thinking of what Mayberry's Sarah looked like came from?

Could be.  Her name was "Sarah".  In early GA eps, Hank Kimball, the Agriculture Agent, said "Sarah" was his mother.  This episode is a later one where Oliver Douglas buys the Hooterville phone company.  The owner's name is Roy Trendell and his mother, Sarah, is the operator.   We can infer from this that, Roy Trendell, whom appears older than Hank Kimball are half brothers. 

Ms. Trendell is portrayed by the very sweet: Merie Earle.  Apparently, she spent time on Dodge commercials.  8-)

Has to be true.  I read it on http://druckersstore.myfastforum.org/Hank_Kimball_about37.html

This is a great question, you just assume that all the fans 'see' Juanita the same way you envision her. I'm more in line with History Buff, but my wife thought Sam Becker had the correct photo! go figure.