Tom Root, Crime Reporter

Tom B. Root was a long-time crime reporter for the Muskogee Daily Phoenix. He began life on July 22nd, 1892, in Kansas City, Missouri, the oldest son of Walter C. and Laura Root. "His father was a prominent architect in Kansas City...and his cousin John Wellborn Root was one of the outstanding architects in Chicago."

He grew up on McGee Avenue in an upper-class neighborhood of wealthy families. Like others on the block, his family enjoyed the services of a cook and servant in their home. Though few recollections of his childhood and early education survive, Tom likely heard a lot about the influential residents of Kansas City given his father's stature as an architect. Surely, the most discussed topic at home would have been the activities of Thomas Joseph Pendergast.

During the 1920's and 1930's, Pendergast was the political boss of Kansas City. During this period, few financial or political decisions at city hall were made without his input or support. The ward politics of Kansas City were lively argued by both local and state newspapers, but the Kansas City Journal-Post seemed to be the most supportive of the Pendergast machine.

And the Kansas City Journal-Post was where Tom began his newspaper career. Those days of big machine politics and mob warfare between the world wars influenced Tom throughout his life. The strongest recollections of Tom by his son and co-workers are of his telling stories of his days reporting for the Journal-Post. "He seemed to know everything about the city government in Kansa [sic] City...[and] the city machine with Pendergast, etc."

Even after Tom left Kansas City, the newswire reports of events happening back home continued to exert an influence on him. Tom got to see the rise of Harry Truman before he became a national politician because Truman was a Pendergast man. He would thusly have seen how the Kansas City Journal-Post was the main supporter of Sen. Harry Truman's 1939 campaign for re-election. This hard-fought campaign occurred on the heels of Pendergast's conviction of tax evasion.

Tom Root went to New Orleans and worked on a newspaper there briefly before coming to Muskogee in 1938. "He was completely devoted to his newspaper work. On the few times that I saw him he would talk nonstop about news events. [He] had an artistic heritage and I believe devoted it all to his work on the newspaper. He was an accomplished pianist and would play classical music to keep himself entertained."

Warren Weakland, long-time sports reporter for the Muskogee Daily-Phoenix who worked with Tom, said that "Whenever Tom was working 'the desk' editing articles for the next issue, everyone knew to watch out for his stories. Tom had one finger cut off and when he was typing some of his words would have spaces in place of missing letters."

According to Warren, "Tom knew the local bootleggers and rum runners because he was basically a crime reporter who was always going out with the police on raids. Mostly," he said, "it was hard liquor back then."

Tom's obituary states that he "covered the impeachment trials in the Oklahoma Senate of Gov. Henry Johnston, a federal trial for then-Sen. Huey Long in Louisiana and the trials of Thomas J. Pendergast, former Kansas City mayor." At his retirement in 1965, he was described as the "Federal Building reporter...for 23 years."

Dr. Root, said that his father "unfortunately had the vice of so many newsmen at that time of smoking too many cigarettes. He would light one cigarette from another and dispose of three packs a day. He developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease as a result and died at eighty eight in full possession of his faculties." Thomas Bullene Root died February 27th, 1980 in Taylors, SC.