Fayetteville's own Elizabeth MacRae, known as Lou-Ann Poovie on 'Gomer Pyle,' dies at 88

Elizabeth “Betsy” MacRae Halsey, known professionally as Elizabeth MacRae, and — among her dozens of roles on TV and in movies — known most recognizably as Lou-Ann Poovie, the girlfriend of Gomer Pyles in the TV series “Gomer Pyle, USMC,” died Monday in Fayetteville at the age of 88.

MacRae, born Feb. 22, 1936, in Columbia, South Carolina, to James and Dorothy MacRae, spent her formative years on Brooke Street in Fayetteville’s Haymount neighborhood.

As a child, she said, she and her siblings would explore the storm drains beneath the city.

“We would go to the park, head down the hole, then just pop up all over town,” she told The Fayetteville Observer in a 2006 profile. “It was a thrilling adventure.”

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After receiving her primary education in Fayetteville, MacRae headed to Washington, D.C., to attend a college-preparatory school before ultimately ending up in Hollywood, where she appeared in nine films and nearly two dozen television shows and soap operas in the 1960s, ‘70s and ‘80s.

In addition to her three-year run as Lou-Ann Poovie, MacRae appeared on episodes of "General Hospital," "Gunsmoke," "Rawhide," "I Dream of Jeannie," "Bonanza," "Days of Our Lives," "Guiding Light," and as Meredith in Francis Ford Coppola's follow-up to the "Godfather" trilogy, the Academy Award-nominated film "The Conversation."

According to her profile on the Internet Movie Database, MacRae's last role was in 1989 in the film "Eddie and the Cruisers II: Eddie Lives!"

Her obituary said that after she retired from television and film, it was her work as an alcohol counselor with the Freedom Institute in New York City that she credited with being her most significant achievement.

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The Observer story in 2006 describes her activism as such:

“After the applause is forgotten and as the publicity photos fade, Elizabeth MacRae will still cherish her biggest award.

“It was a hug from a man she helped rescue from an alcoholic haze in the gutters of the Bowery.

"‘That was my Academy Award, right there,' she said, her hazel eyes glimmering. ‘He was my first case as a social worker in the Bowery in Manhattan.’”

In 2001, MacRae returned to live in Fayetteville with her husband, Charles Day Halsey. It would be just 59 days after the March 29 death of her husband of 55 years that she would join him.

She is survived by her stepchildren, Terry Halsey, Peter Halsey, Hugh Halsey, Cate Halsey and Alex Halsey Topper. She is also survived by her nieces and nephews, Marie MacRae Sutherland, James C. MacRae Jr., Samuel H. MacRae, Katherine MacRae Parnell, Julie Vallery Merrill, R. Colton Vallery Jr., Carolyn Vallery Gore, Elizabeth C. Vallery, and many great nieces and nephews.

A private memorial service will be held at a later date.

This article originally appeared on The Fayetteville Observer: Elizabeth MacRae, Lou-Ann Poovie, of 'Gomer Pyle,' dies