View source for Tom Loyless


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'''Tom W. Loyless''' (ca.1871 - March 19, 1926), now best known as the manager owner of the [[Warm Springs, Georgia|Warm Springs]] [[spa town|spa]] resort, owned by [[George Foster Peabody]]. Prior to managing the resort, Loyless, a native of west Georgia, served as a [[newspaper]] [[reporter]], [[editing|editor]] and [[publisher]] at papers in [[Augusta, Georgia|Augusta]], [[Columbus, Georgia|Columbus]] and [[Macon, Georgia|Macon]]. He was " one of the South's leading editorial voices, known for his fierce commentaries and a temper that matched."<ref>"The Way We Were: The Chronicle’s famed editor Tom Loyless", ''Augusta Chronicle'', August 23, 2020</ref>

==Life==
As a young editor Loyless earned a reputation for bluntness and a fiery temper that did not always limit itself to print.  An 1897 dispute with H.C. Hanson, editor of the rival ''Macon Morning Telegraph'' (later merged with ''Macon Evening News'' to form the ''[[Macon Telegraph]]'') in which Loyless accused Hanson of bias in reporting became so heated that when meeting Hanson in person Loyless struck him.  Hanson in turn drew a handgun.

===Career===
In 1903 Loyless and H.H. Cabiness acquired ownership of the ''[[Augusta Chronicle]]''. By 1915 Loyless was editor of the few newspaper editors in Georgia to proclaim the innocence of [[Leo Frank]] and denounced his prosecutors as corrupt. The ''Chronicle'' supported Governor [[John M. Slaton]] in commuting Leo Frank's death sentence. [[Thomas E. Watson]], publisher of ''Watson's Magazine'' and ''The Jeffersonian'', openly advocated the lynching of Frank and defended the mob that attacked the Governor's home. For several weeks Loyless devoted almost his entire newspaper to confronting Watson. The ''Chronicle'' was practically alone among the daily newspapers to do so.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=F8hZAAAAYAAJ&dq=Tom+Loyless&pg=PA690 ''Forum'', vol. 56, Library of American civilization, PSU, 1916, p.690]{{PD-notice}}</ref> In 1919 Loyless moved to the Columbus Enquirer-Sun.<ref>[https://gahistoricnewspapers.galileo.usg.edu/lccn/sn86053009/ "Augusta chronicle and Georgia advertiser", Georgia Historic Newspapers]</ref> His editorials about Frank cost him his local popularity and made him an enemy of the [[Ku Klux Klan]].

===Warm Springs===
Georgia banker and philanthropist [[George Foster Peabody]] had often visited the estate of his partner [[Spencer Trask]] in [[Saratoga Springs, New York]], and in 1910 agreed to succeed him as chairman of the state commission set up to purchase and conserve the famous spa there. In 1923 Peabody acquired the Meriweather Inn at [[Warm Springs, Georgia]] near his boyhood home. Loyless had been leasing the Inn, and became Peabody's agent, managing the property.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=XwBcBAAAQBAJ&dq=Tom+Loyless&pg=PA203 Tobin, James. ''The Man He Became: How FDR Defied Polio to Win the Presidency'', Simon and Schuster, 2014, p. 203]</ref>

Loyless proved an ambitious caretaker of the much-in-disrepair property.  After a young man suffering from [[polio]] discovered that the springs helped him, Loyless and Warm Springs attracted the attention of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]], who had been stricken by a [[Franklin D. Roosevelt's paralytic illness|paralytic illness in 1921]], diagnosed at the time as polio. Based on his own improvement, Roosevelt decided that Warm Springs could help victims of polio, and he worked together with Loyless on improvements to the resort and spa.

In March 1923, Loyless was in New York and addressed the [[Jewish Telegraphic Agency|Jewish Correspondence Bureau]] regarding the Frank case.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=bAccAQAAMAAJ&dq=Tom+Loyless&pg=PA226 "Watson Made Fortune on Frank case says Georgia Editor", ''The Reform Advocate'', vol. 65, p.226]</ref> Loyless remained at Warm Springs until his health failed due to cancer in 1925.  An obituary (featuring the subheading "Georgia Editor Was an Unceasing Enemy of the Klan") appeared on page 19 of the March 22, 1926, issue of the ''New York Times''.

Loyless is portrayed in the [[2005 in film|2005]] movie ''[[Warm Springs (film)|Warm Springs]]'' by [[Tim Blake Nelson]]. While the film gives the impression that Loyless was no longer active in newspapers at the time of Roosevelt's visits, he was in fact still involved with the [[Columbus Ledger|''Columbus'' (Georgia) ''Ledger'']] (of which Loyless owned a percentage).  Franklin Roosevelt contributed several editorials to the paper as a guest editor and nine guest-editorials for Loyless's former paper, the [[The Telegraph (Macon)|''Macon Telegraph'']], which were syndicated nationally.<ref>[http://georgiainfo.galileo.usg.edu/FDRedito.htm FDR's ties to Georgia]</ref>

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://www.cviog.uga.edu/Projects/gainfo/FDRvisit.htm Franklin D. Roosevelt's Visits to Georgia]
* [http://newdeal.feri.org/speeches/1934g.htm Extemporaneous Remarks at Thanksgiving Day Party at Warm Springs, Georgia]
* [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1897/11/07/102545265.pdf Warring Editors in Georgia]
*[https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1915/09/13/104654298.pdf Loyless editorial on the Leo Frank prosecution]

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[[Category:American businesspeople]]
[[Category:Year of birth uncertain]]
[[Category:1926 deaths]]