The Making of a Hero: What Calvin Coolidge told Tom Lee at White House
“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.
At the end of May 1925, Tom Lee went to Washington, D.C., and met with Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president of the United States.
The two shook hands in the White House Rose Garden as photographers snapped pictures and newsreel cameras rolled.
Lee saw other attractions in Washington, including Howard University, before he abruptly cut short his visit to return to Memphis, according to The Commercial Appeal.
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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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