It was more than just a get-together when Bobby Raines and his daughter Barbara May trekked to posh Beverly Hills last week to honor the life and work of a relative they might not have seen much, but knew well all the same.

They were among 400 invited family members, friends and other guests at the Writer’s Guild Theater near Wilshire Boulevard for a tribute to actor Don Knotts.

Knotts died Feb. 24 at UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles of complications from lung cancer. He was 81.

May is a great-niece of the late comic actor most remember for his role as the bumbling deputy Barney Fife on TV’s &#8220The Andy Griffith Show.” Her grandfather, Earl Knotts, was one of the actor’s brothers.

Raines, 73, a retired captain with the Vicksburg Fire Department who later worked for Glenwood Funeral Home, and May, 37, a counselor at Beechwood Elementary since 2000, didn’t feel out of place one bit among the glitz and glamor of the Hollywood set. In fact, they were awestruck by how they were received.

&#8220Everyone was so nice. They treated us like royalty. But then again, they all put their britches on just like we do,” said Raines, whose late wife was Knotts’ niece.

Prizes from the even include photos taken with such stars as Ron Howard, Barbara Eden, Bob Newhart and Tom Poston.

Raines and May said Knotts stayed in touch with his kin, usually by phone.

&#8220He’d usually call twice a year,” Raines said. &#8220We’d see him for different appearances he’d make.”

One of those came in 2002 at Grand Casino Biloxi, when Knotts appeared with fellow comic actor Tim Conway, a frequent co-star of Knotts’ in his post-Andy Griffith Show career.

They got to talk a while. &#8220No fancy suite, we just sat at a table off in the corner,” May said. &#8220He didn’t put on any airs at all.”

Knotts’ kindness also showed in 1991 as Raines’ wife of 33 years, Carolyn Lea Knotts Raines, was in the last stages of her battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or Lou Gehrig’s disease.

&#8220Don called every week during her illness. That was Don. He was 180 degrees from what you saw on TV. He would be funny when he wanted to, but he wasn’t that nervous, little fellow. He was smart and talented,” Raines said.

The man behind the high-strung presence that marked Knotts’ TV and movie roles was born Jesse Donald Knotts in Morgantown, W.Va., on July 21, 1924.

At 19, Knotts joined the Army and served in World War II with a traveling variety show called &#8220Stars and Gripes.” Knotts received the World War II victory medal during his service. After the war, Knotts graduated from West Virginia University with a theater degree.

His career in television began almost with the start of the medium itself, in 1953. He starred on the soap &#8220Search for Tomorrow” and then forged his nervous persona in the &#8220man on the street” interviews on &#8220The Steve Allen Show.”

But it was his portrayal of Deputy Barney Fife that cemented his image in the minds of viewers in the early 1960s. It was a role that earned Knotts five Emmy Awards, trophies his only Mississippi relatives got to handle and pose with during the recent tribute in Beverly Hills.

&#8220He said he wrote many of his own lines on the show,” Raines said. &#8220Andy was a very, very close friend to him. Only Andy could get away with calling him Jesse.

Knotts left the series in 1965, starring in a string of films and short-lived television series over the next 15 years that featured him in the same frenetic, animated character type. They included the &#8220Apple Dumpling Gang” with Conway in 1975 and its 1979 sequel, &#8220The Apple Dumpling Gang Rides Again.”

That same year, Knotts was in the sitcom spotlight again, this time on ABC’s popular &#8220Three’s Company.” For five seasons, Knotts played Ralph Furley, the landlord of equally bumbling tenant Jack Tripper, played by the late John Ritter.

More recently, Knotts again played alongside Andy Griffith on the lawyer drama &#8220Matlock” in recurring roles. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2000, one that Raines, May and Raines’ oldest daughter, Sharon Marshall, were sure to visit during their time in Beverly Hills.

May’s impressions of Don Knotts, the last relative on her mother’s side she was able to know, reflect how most who knew him will remember him.

&#8220He seemed quiet for a star and was just a nice, likeable man.”