I was sad to learn this afternoon of the passing of Tom Freeland. Tom was the author of nmisscommentor.com. He passed away after post-surgical complications in New Orleans this morning.
Tom and I met within the first two weeks of the Scruggs scandal. Our collaboration was unique and spanned seven plus years. I valued his insight highly. Ironically, it was almost two years of regular communication before we ever met in person, but when I came to Oxford he was always nice enough to grab a drink and visit. But for Tom, I know that the coverage of it would not have evolved as it did. He was a great supporter of the Kings of Tort book effort and I know had the capacity to write a pretty engaging book on his experiences, including the Scruggs Scandal, that may now regrettably go unfulfilled. He was a brilliant writer and his instincts on things were usually correct. For someone who shared almost none of the same political inclinations, he’s someone who otherwise saw the world in a very similar way.
My prayers go out to his wife Joyce and their family. He will be sorely missed.
Magnolia Tribune
