'Queen Mary' Martin, fixture at Stan's Idle Hour, remembered as SW Florida icon

Lance Shearer
Naples Daily News Correspondent

Southwest Florida lost a little of its unique character this week.

“Queen Mary” Martin, a fixture of Sunday afternoons at Stan’s Idle Hour Restaurant in Goodland for 35 years and the Buzzard Lope Queen emerita, died Wednesday at Avow Hospice. She was 79.

Unique character certainly described "Queen Mary," along with another word, iconic, that comes up repeatedly in talking with those who knew her.  

“There was only one Queen Mary, just like there was only one Stan,” said Steve Gober, Stan Gober’s son, who took over his father's namesake restaurant after Stan Gober's death in 2012. “We can never replace her, just remember her.”  

Former Buzzard Lope Queen Mary Martin, 71, poses for a photo during the 27th Annual Mullet Festival at Stan's Idle Hour in Goodland on Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011.

Thousands who attended the regular Sunday outdoor party at Stan’s since 1983 remember Martin for her outsize personality, outlandish attire and award-winning dance moves doing the Buzzard Lope during the Mullet Festival each winter at Stan’s.

Wearing brightly colored, feathered or beaded outfits and oversized floppy hats, she would dance, winning the title of Buzzard Lope Queen, then repeating as Queen of the Decade, and Queen of the Score — after the contest had gone on for 20 years — before Stan Gober retired her from competition.  

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“She was an iconic figure, for sure,” said Jeff Hilt, who emceed the Buzzard Lope competition and played in the band at Stan’s for decades. “People would come to Stan’s just to see her. They didn’t care who the band was — if Queen Mary wasn’t there, they would ask where she was and what happened.”  

“She didn’t drink a drop — her and her husband neither,” said Steve Gober. "(Martin) “lost quite a lot of weight over the years, I think it was from all the dancing. She danced to every song. That’s what she was there for.”  

After Martin fell about three years ago, Gober said, she had to use a walker to get around and couldn’t drive. When her age and infirmities prevented her from dancing, she would still sit on the edge of the stage at Stan's, greeting patrons and inviting them to stuff dollar bills, or 10s or 20s, into the plunging necklines that were always a part of her homemade costumes.  

Wishing Well volunteer Dale Rod cuddles up with "Queen Mary" Martin of Buzzard Lope Queen fame. "Angels Over Stan's" raised money for the Wishing Well Foundation in December 2012 at Stan's Idle Hour in Goodland.

“People were still putting tips into her cleavage until a month ago,” Steve Gober said. “We got her her own private parking space — you can see the sign out front.”  

The last time Queen Mary appeared at Stan’s was the Sunday after Easter, he said. Often in her last years she would get a ride to Stan’s in Goodland from her home in Golden Gate Estates, courtesy of her friend Paul Hommerding, who would drive her on the 2½-hour round trip so she could keep faith with her regulars.  

More:Music and fish bring thousands to Mullet Festival

“She was the sweetest person,” Hommerding said. “Along with Stan, she taught me to be kind to people, to help others and love your neighbor.” 

The people at Stan’s, including Steve Gober, knew little about Mary Martin apart from her persona as Queen Mary.  

“Stan’s was her Sunday family,” Hilt said.  

"Queen Mary" Martin sits onstage at Stan's Idle Hour in October 2012 as the Goodland watering hole opened for the first weekend of the season, the first season since the death of creator and namesake Stan Gober.

Martin’s actual family includes two daughters and a son, along with five grandchildren. Martin lived with her daughter Sara Lee Finger Mason, an insurance agent in Naples. Her daughter Sandra Lynn Hall lives in Adel, Georgia, where she cleans homes. Son Quincy Adam Finger lives in Bonita Springs and has a handyman business, Hall said.  

“She never met a stranger. She loved people and made friends everywhere she went. She was always so happy,” Hall said of her mother.  

Martin was born Feb. 11, 1939, in Louisville, Kentucky. She was married for 25 years to Grover Cleveland Jr., whose job in the Navy caused the family to move often, before finding “the love of her life,” second husband Johnny Maquirk, said Hall. Martin worked as a maid and nanny, or as a stay-at-home mother.

Her longtime residency at Stan’s was a creative outlet and a chance to connect with people, as she loved to do. 

“That was her day to shine. Come hell or high water, she’d be there on that stage,”  Steve Gober said. 

He said the restaurant plans a  remembrance for Queen Mary, possibly July 1, the last Sunday that Stan’s will be open before closing until Oct. 6. 

Word of Queen Mary’s passing quickly circulated on the internet and social media. 

One newspaper reader, Pamela Taylor, already submitted a poem in her honor to the Letters to the Editor section of the Marco Eagle. A post on the Stan’s Facebook page announcing the sad news garnered over 1,000 responses — including “loves,” sad icons and “likes” — in under 24 hours, as well as scores of comments and photos from Martin's friends and fans.  

Buzzard Lope Queen Mary Martin stands near the casket of Stan Gober during a playing of "God Bless America" at a memorial service for Gober at Stan's Idle Hour Restaurant on June 23, 2012, in Goodland.

Many echoed the sentiments of Paul Hommerding. 

“She gave people permission to laugh and be themselves. She could do outrageous things and get away with it,” he said. “She taught me nobody can have more fun than you can, if you let yourself.  

“She was herself. There was only one Mary.”