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The Making of a Hero: What happened to Tom Lee after the river rescue

By , Daily Memphian Published: May 05, 2025 4:00 AM CT

The day after the M.E. Norman riverboat capsized and sank on the Mississippi River south of Memphis, the Kissling brothers, Hans and F.H., were on a team working to recover bodies and clear the river channel.

Seven miles south of Cow Island Bend, they found the boat’s pilot house that had been ripped from the top as the sternwheeler capsized before going down sideways beneath the muddy waters and into the treacherous currents.

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Tom Lee Centennial Tom Lee E.H. Crump Subscriber Only

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Bill Dries

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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