lamella | lamellae [plural] | lamellas [plural] | middle lamella [synonym, sense-specific] | lamellar [derived] a thin layer, plate, or membrane, especially any of the calcified layers of which bone is formed | [botany] any of the spore-bearing gills of a ... (25 of 291 words, 6 definitions, pronunciations)
Thomas was born on April 30, 1961, in Chicago, Illinois. He was the youngest of nine brothers and sisters. Thomas commuted from Chicago's West Side North Lawndale neighborhood to play high school basketball at St. Joseph High School in Westchester, Illinois for Gene Pingatore.
Tom is the only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, Mary Lee (Pfeiffer), a special education teacher, and Thomas Cruise Mapother III, an electrical engineer. His parents were both from Louisville, Kentucky, and he has German, Irish, and English ancestry. Young Tom spent his boyhood always on the move, and by the time he was 14 he had attended 15 different schools in the U.S. and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband.