Actor Tom Cruise's mother, Mary Lee South, remembered on Marco for being "larger than life"
South died in her sleep last week at the age of 80
To the world, Mary Lee South was Tom Cruise’s mother, but to the residents of Marco Island, she was just plain ole’ Mary Lee, a larger-than-life individual and one of the nicest people you’d ever meet. She died in her sleep last week at the age of 80.
Mary Lee Pfeiffer was a Louisville, Ky., native who was a teacher when she married Cruise's father, Thomas Cruise Mapother III. The marriage was unhappy and broke up and she remarried, to Cruise's stepfather, Jack South.
The two moved to Marco Island, where they lived together for nearly two decades. During that time South became actively involved in the community, co-founding the Marco Island Film Festival and serving as a minister of the Eucharist for San Marco Catholic Church, where her legacy lived on even after she moved away from the island. She later converted to Scientology,
“I didn’t know Mary Lee personally, she moved right before I joined the church, but I know she was a very active parishioner and was involved in skits and other various church activities,” the Rev. Tim Navin of San Marco Catholic Church said, “and she was an extraordinary Eucharistic minister; she would help bring it to people who couldn’t leave their homes. I know that everyone who did know her were sad when she left the island.”
Nick Campo, owner of Marco Movies and also a co-founder of the film festival, met South through his mother. The two were friends and used to gossip about their sons at the bar of Campo’s family’s restaurant. Soon, Campo and South became friends, too, bonding over their shared love of movies and thriving off of each other’s infectious personalities.
“You see Tom and his charisma and his big personality, and Mary Lee was 10 times that. And that huge smile of his? He got that from her,” said Campo, whose own smile could be heard over the phone. “She was just an amazing, amazing person and truly larger than life”
Campo soon began hosting screenings of Cruise’s movies at his theater, and, in 1998, he and South founded the Marco Island Film Festival, along with Marco Island residents Maury Dailey and Pat Berry, who also has fond memories of South.
“She was a lovely person, that’s all I can really say; she was just absolutely lovely,” Berry said. “She was a very giving person and was on all kinds of committees and boards, and was always raising money for different things. You simply couldn’t find a nicer person.”
To raise money for the film festival during its first year, South auctioned off her son’s famous leather bomber jacket from "Top Gun," a film that Cruise prepared for with the help of another Marco Island resident, Curtis Watson, who took him for a ride in a tactical jet.
On 30th anniversary of Top Gun—Marco man recalls flying Tom Cruise around in a jet
But typically, South didn’t like to advertise who her son was, or capitalize on his fame; although she was proud of Cruise’s achievements and was the one who first encouraged him to pursue his Hollywood dreams. The paparazzi would stake out her house anytime there was a “Tom sighting” on the island, Campo said.
“She always wished that the press would leave her alone,” but she did get a kick out of reading stories about Cruise in the tabloids, he said. “Once she read in the National Enquirer that he was sneaking away from his house in Sarasota to come visit her, and she just said, ‘I didn’t even know he had a house in Sarasota!’ ”
Although Campo, Berry and everyone else who knew South have plenty more “Mary Lee stories” that they'll remember for the rest of their lives, what they’ll remember most is her generous spirit, loving nature and kind heart.
“She made everyone feel at home,” Campo said.
“She was light, she was fun and she could keep the good times rolling,” Berry added. “It’s a sad day for everyone who knew her.”
A memorial service at South’s local Church of Scientology took place last weekend. Cruise, 54, was there with his three sisters, Lee Ann DeVette, 57, Cass Mapother, 55, and Marian Henry, 52, along with other family and friends.
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