Digging Deep on Marco Island’s Most Famous Female

It should surprise no one that it took two people to tell the story of Marco Island’s dynamic Tommie Barfield, the pioneering woman who played such a huge role in creating not only Marco Island but Collier County itself. Collier County is celebrating its 100th anniversary, and stories of Tommie Barfield are a big part of the celebration, especially on Marco Island, where Barfield lived and helped develop.

Marco Island Historic Museum Manager Rebecca Mazeroski and author Betsy Perdichizzi combined their considerable talents to pass along information about Tommie Barfield in a most entertaining way on Wednesday, June 7th, at the Rose Auditorium at the Marco Island Historical Museum campus.

In her opening remarks, Mazeroski put things in perspective about Tommie Barfield, who lived on Marco Island from 13 until her death at 61 in 1949.

“The more you hear this afternoon,” Mazeroski promises the audience, "the more you're going to learn that Barron Collier had a great deal of help in creating Collier County and that help came from perhaps an unlikely source. It came from a woman. And think about the time that this is all happening. It's 100 years ago, and women did not at that time play a prominent role in politics or government or any of the other things that came into play in order for Collier County to come to life.”

Mazeroski has been scouring stacks of books and volumes of newspaper articles to glean every interesting tidbit about Tommie Barfield, the Marco Island and Collier County icon.

One of the books Mazeroski studied was Perdichizzi’s A Girl Named Tommie, a project she completed with another Marco Island icon, Kappy Kirk. Kirk’s family is still going strong on Goodland at Kirk Fish, the iconic fish house owned and operated by the fifth-generation fishing family. Kirk Fish is located next door to the Little Bar on Goodland.

Perdichizzi appeared in character as Tommie Barfield and read from her book. She told of Tommie Barfield, the hotelier and beekeeper.

"I started taking in wealthy winter visitors through the season,” said Perdichizzi, acting as Tommie Barfield, "and pretty soon, we started calling it the Heights Hotel, for the hotel business was going pretty well. Even when I hired a cook, I continued to supervise the kitchen, monitor menus and food preparations and make jams and jellies. I stayed up late and rose early to plan the evening meals and help pack the lunches for the guests to have out on the picnic or the beach or the boats or where they went. And the guests were so appreciative they kept coming back. Year after year, our large rambling house became a famous watering hole, drawing winter visitors year after year, and Jim kept enlarging it until it had room for 22 guests. Guests began demanding to take back my jars of jams and jellies and citrus peel candies.”

Mazeroski told of Barfield’s relationship with her husband, Jim, who was 20 years older than the then-Tommie Stephens.

"Tommie turns 18,” Mazeroski said. “She marries Jim Barfield. He was 38 at the time. Yeah, that's quite an age gap, isn't it? And if you want to cast a little side eye here, I completely understand. What I want to say is that it was very apparent that this was a great partnership. I call them the dynamic duo because you really could see that they worked together very well.”

Mazeroski describes the Barfields as mutually ambitious.

"Tommie's goals and ambitions aligned well with Jim’s,” Mazeroski said. “Like the Colliers in the village of Marco, the Barfields realized there was a certain kind of tourist out there that wanted to be out in the wild but still wanted someone to cook their dinner for them. And this would be the beginning of the Heights Hotel for Tommie and Jim. On top of that, Tommie starts creating jams and jellies and honey, first to serve in the hotel restaurants and then to sell to guests to take home. This would grow into a mail-order business. Her honey, in particular, was popular.”

Of course, Tommie Barfield is best known to modern Marco Islanders as an educator. Tommie Barfield Elementary is the outstanding grade school that has born her name since it opened in 1956.

 "Tommie was appointed the superintendent of education of the new county in 1923,” Mazeroski said, "a position she held until 1949.”

Perdichizzi shared a passage of Tommie Barfield reflecting on the time when she delivered a longer speech than President Harry Truman at the dedication of Everglades National Park.

"She talked longer than President Harry Truman did,” Perdichizzi said.  “The band from Fort Myers High School Band played since no Collier County school was big enough to have a band. And then President Truman, speaking for only 12 minutes, charged the atmosphere with a rousing speech.”

The exhibit about Tommie Barfield, The Queen of Marco, runs through August 5.  Museum hours are Tuesday through Saturday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Admission is free.