Back with Truman

It was in September when Bob and Dorothy Fischer of Crown Point sent the following question:

"Phil, after reading a recent column you wrote on the Truman Capote movie, an old question arose that maybe you can answer. I read somewhere that 'the pie lady' that appears on 'The Tonight Show' is one of the two aunts who raised Capote as a boy and whom he mentions in some of his writings.

"She fits the fascinating oddball type that would help shape the mind of someone like Capote. Would you have a suggestion for a source I could go to for a confirmation of this story?

"We enjoy your columns! Keep up the fun!"

When I answered their letter in a previous column, I explained the woman the Fischers were referring to was 95-year-old Marie Rudisill, known as "the fruitcake lady" on regular segments of Jay Leno's "The Tonight Show." She was indeed the aunt in Alabama who raised Capote, and the woman he wrote about in his famous story, "A Christmas Memory." After Rudisill was featured as a guest in December 2000 on Leno's show, demonstrating to the host and actor Mel Gibson how to make fruitcake, she was asked to appear in regular segments beginning in 2002 called "Ask the Fruitcake Lady."

It's with sadness that I report Rudisill died in Hudson, Fla, last November, just before the publication date of her latest book "Ask the Fruitcake Lady: Everything You Would Already Know If You Had Any Sense" (2006 Hyperion Press $14.95), which was released on Nov. 7.

A recent re-broadcast of a tribute to Rudisill on "The Tonight Show" earlier this month included a tribute composed of highlights from her segments on the show, including one in which she cooked with Tom Cruise. This re-run of "The Tonight Show" apparently was seen by a number of Times readers, based on the amount of e-mails and telephone calls I received about Rudisill's "recent passing" (which isn't really all that recent anymore), prompting this column update.

At the time of her death, she was happily retired in Florida and proud of the nine books she'd authored in her lifetime, especially "Fruitcake, Memories of Truman Capote & Sook" (2000 Hillstreet Press $24.95).

"Sook" was the longtime family cook who worked for Capote and Rudisill.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer. He can be reached at ppotempa@nwitimes.com or 219.852.4327.

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