These just suddenly died. I pulled them and noticed right at the base of the plant looked funny? What could this be? The roots look good to me too. I havent seen anything like this before or couldn't locate in any books.

This looks like Southern Blight to me.

See the little tan sclerotia (circular growths) in these images. http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pp272 (Figure 4)

..."In addition, numerous tan, round, or irregular mustard-seed-sized sclerotia are produced on affected plant parts and the surrounding soil surface..."

WOW, that looks to be it! Great information too. Hope I can get thru the rest of the summer and not lose any more.
Thanks Chelle!

You're welcome, Dawn.

I hope the rest of your plants do well and give you lots of yummy tomatoes!

I'm still waiting to taste the first of this year's crop...nothing but green, so far.

I hope I can treat the soil. Not sure what to do. I think I'm going to try and grow something in there in the fall. I'll till it up real good and add as much organic matter as I can. Not sure what to do really.

Maybe grow some pollinator attracting flowers in that spot for awhile? Perhaps radishes or something similar would grow there as well.