GRAND RE-OPENING of TOM LEE PARK

Tom Lee Park honors a man who saw humanity and became a superhero.

On May 8, 1925, the M.E. Norman set sail from Memphis with 72 men, women and children onboard for a trip to inspect revetment work at Pinckney Landing, two miles downriver of Memphis. The trip passed without incident until the boat ran into trouble on its return journey.The steamer capsized and its passengers were thrown into the fast and chilly current of the Mississippi River. Tom Lee, passing by in his small wooden skiff Zev, rescued 32 passengers from the numbing waters. His rescue was all the more remarkable as Lee himself could not swim.Lee was quickly recognized as a hero. Tributes and gifts poured in from across the country. Lee was awarded with a job as a sanitation worker and the Engineers Club purchased his modest home in north Memphis. Lee was even celebrated at the White House by President Calvin Coolidge. Upon his death in 1954, Astor Park was dedicated as Tom Lee Park and, in 1991, expanded by the Corps of Engineers to the size it is today.

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