The Making of a Hero: What happened to Tom Lee after the river rescue
Tom Lee’s house on Mansfield Street is a work in progress. Despite the mural across the front of the house, there is a notice from city code enforcement that the house is unsafe for occupancy that was posted this past December. (Jane Roberts/The Daily Memphian file)
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.
This is an excerpt of this story. To read more, please click here and subscribe.
Topics
Tom Lee Centennial Tom Lee E.H. Crump Subscriber OnlyThank you for supporting local journalism.
Subscribers to The Daily Memphian help fund our not-for-profit newsroom of nearly 40 local journalists plus more than 20 freelancers, all of whom work around the clock to cover the issues impacting our community. Subscriptions - and donations - also help fund our community access programs which provide free access to K-12 schools, community organizations, and more. Thank you for making our work possible.
Bill Dries on demand
Never miss an article. Sign up to receive Bill Dries' stories as they’re published.
Enter your e-mail address
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.
Want to comment on our stories or respond to others? Join the conversation by subscribing now. Only paid subscribers can add their thoughts or upvote/downvote comments. Our commenting policy can be viewed here.