The Making of a Hero: After fading, Tom Lee’s story resurfaces
The statue of Tom Lee sits in the Downtown Memphis park, memorializing his heroic rescue of 32 people from the Mississippi River. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)
“The Making of a Hero” is a series of stories marking the centennial of Tom Lee’s 1925 Mississippi River rescue that saved the lives of 32 passengers on the capsized M.E. Norman riverboat.
By the 1990s, Tom Lee’s name was one many Memphians knew. But that recognition was less for who he was and more for the name of the park that hosted the city’s largest annual gathering — the Memphis in May International Festival.
His name was on tickets, posters and T-shirts. At the start of the 1990s, the park was getting bigger, an U.S. Army Corps of Engineers undertaking that was part engineering project and part expansion of the park’s ability to host a growing crowd. The three-day Beale Street Music Festival in Tom Lee Park had overtaken the Sunset Symphony as Memphis in May’s biggest draw.
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Tom Lee Centennial David Alan Clark Charmeal Neely Mindy Wood Costabile Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
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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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