May 8 marks 100 years since Tom Lee rescued 32 people from the Mississippi River south of Memphis when their boat, the M.E. Norman, capsized.

Lee, a Black man who had worked on the river for many years, had rescued some of the city’s most prominent white citizens. The aftermath of the rescue changed Lee’s life, and the account became one of the city’s best-known river stories after Lee’s death in 1952 from cancer.

Over time, the story itself was simplified and its aftermath faded. But starting in the late 1990s, a series of events brought Lee’s story and that of the M.E. Norman back into the spotlight, but with a new lens and perspective.

Beneath the tale’s simple surface were more complex undercurrents about the events on the river that day, how the story was told, who Lee really was, the anonymity that he came from and what Memphis was like 100 years ago.

This series from The Daily Memphian, “The Making of a Hero,” explores all of those chapters in a story as wide and deep as the Mississippi River. It’s as essential to understanding the city’s enduring identity as the stories handed down from generation to generation of the families that are Memphis.

The Making of a Hero: 100 years ago, an engineers' convention turned deadly

On May 8, 1925, about 100 years ago, a steamboat capsized in the Mississippi River — a disaster that forced dozens of men, women and children to fight for their life against the current until a brave Memphian, a veteran river worker, reached out to help.

The Making of a Hero: Who was Tom Lee?

A headstone in Mt. Carmel Cemetery shows Tom Lee was born Feb. 18, 1885, and died April 1, 1952. Between those two dates, Lee mostly lived in Memphis.