Longtime Memphis Reporter Tom Dees passed away this week.

Dees was the longest-tenured member of the WHBQ News team.

Today would have been Dees’ 58th birthday.

The station says that the popular Reporter died in his home after an illness.

The station writes, “Over the last several years Tom was a multimedia journalist (MMJ), which is also known in the TV business as a one-man-band. That meant he typically crisscrossed North Mississippi by himself often turning a couple stories a day. Those stories were almost always filled with the real people of the region, who the stories impacted most. It was easy for Tom to find those real people, because he was one himself. In an industry known for big personalities and egos, there was no pretense to Tom Dees. Each day he put on a white dress shirt, khakis and big belt buckle and headed out in his news car to serve his community.”