The story of Tom Lee and his afterlife
The existing statue of Tom Lee, surrounded by construction, on Oct. 6, 2021. Internationally acclaimed artist Theaster Gates created the centerpiece art for the redesigned Tom Lee Park. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)
After his heroic efforts to save 32 people from a capsized excursion boat on the Mississippi River, Tom Lee worked as a city sanitation worker and lived in the Klondike neighborhood.
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Bill Dries
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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