A regional actress who had often performed in one-woman shows, Summers was past 50 when she came to Hollywood to begin her career as a character player. She made her television debut in 1951 on the series Hawkin Falls, Population 6200 but it was not until the late 1950's when she kicked off a career as one of the most in-demand character performers on television.
Summers first attracted attention in 1958 in the semi-regular role as Hattie Denton on the western series The Rifleman. She guest starred on dozens of series including Wagon Train, Divorce Court, Hazel, Gunsmoke, The Beverly Hillbillies, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Bewitched, Hawaii Five-0, M*A*S*H, Starsky and Hutch, Welcome Back Kotter, and Little House on the Prairie but will be forever known for her work as Clara Edwards, Aunt Bee's slightly gossipy best friend on The Andy Griffith Show. Summers made 36 appearances on the program during the 1960's (in earlier episodes her character was called Bertha) as well as five appearances on the post-Griffith spinoff Mayberry R.F.D..
Her film work usually was in quite small parts, occasionally unbilled, but she had a good-sized role in the most unGriffith-like Rosemary's Baby in 1968. She was still a very active actress until the year before her death from congestive heart failure at age 77 in 1979. She died in Woodland Hills, California.
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Last updated on Wednesday June 04, 2008 at 12:45:23 PDT (GMT -0700)
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