(CNN) -- Just a few miles south of the Virginia state line, Mount Airy, North Carolina -- a former stagecoach stop along the Ararat River -- is thought to have inspired Mayberry, the fictional town where "The Andy Griffith Show" was supposedly set. By no coincidence, Mount Airy is also the birthplace of Andy Griffith, the actor who played Sheriff Andy Taylor in the series. Griffith died Tuesday at the age of 86 on North Carolina's Roanoke Island, his family said. But the actor's legacy in this small community, once propped up by a local economy fixed on textiles and tobacco, seems ever-present.
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Mount Airy may have inspired Mayberry, a fictional town where "The Andy Griffith Show" was set
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The North Carolina town is the birthplace of Andy Griffith, who died Tuesday
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Mount Airy -- with a population of about 10,000 -- is also home to the Andy Griffith Museum
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The building is filled with memorabilia collected by the actor's friend, Emmett Forrest
"@placeholder just really has meant a lot to this town" and to those who came to it because of him, she said.