Florence Jean Castleberry

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Florence Jean Castleberry , better known "Flo", is a fictional character in the movie Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, the subsequent television series, Alice, and that show's spinoff, Flo. In the movie, Flo was played by actress Diane Ladd, and on the television series, she was played by Polly Holliday.

[edit] All about Flo

Florence Jean Castleberry was born in the small community of Cowtown, Texas, to Edsel Jarvis (Forrest Tucker) and Velma Castleberry (Sudie Bond). She also has a sister named Fran (Lucy Lee Flippin).

Her best friend in Cowtown was a woman named Miriam Willoughby (Joyce Bulifant).

After three unsuccessful marriages, Flo became a waitress at Mel's Diner in Phoenix, Arizona, a roadside diner run by Mel Sharples.

She was the old-hand waitress, and took on a motherly role when Alice Hyatt came to Phoenix, and began to work for Mel. She also flirted with the male customers, mostly to annoy Mel.

Flo and Mel had an adversarial relationship. They respected one another, but Flo wouldn't stand for Mel's sexism and greed. Whenever she was angry at him, she would often floor him with her famous catch-phrase, "Mel, kiss mah grits!!!" Other expressions she used most often were, "When donkeys fly!!!" and "You bet your sweet patootie!"

Alice and Flo were best friends. She also liked Alice's son, Tommy Hyatt, whom she called "Tiger".

After several years at the diner, Flo left Phoenix, to take a hostessing job in Houston, Texas, but stopped back in Cowtown and bought a roadhouse from her girlhood days, renaming it Flo's Yellow Rose.