A Simple Request From a Fallen Soldier’s Family Touched a Nation
Felix Longoria grew up in a small town called Three Rivers between Corpus Christi and San Antonio, Texas. His father was initially a foreman for the railroad but when his engine was destroyed he was dismissed and thereafter sought work as a migrant farm worker. Taking his wife and small children on a truck they would canvas the state looking for work. As was common in the 1930s many times the family had to use the truck as a home if no barn was available because “Mexicans” were not allowed in hotels.
Young Felix emulated his father in learning how to fix things. His late sister once said that he could fix just about anything around the house or on wheels. Like many young men, he eventually married and moved to Corpus Christi to seek his future as a truck driver but the world was at war and he was now of age to serve in the military.
In 1945 he was a part of the invading forces retaking the Philippines. Several reports indicate that he found life in the military different without the discrimination he had felt at home growing up in Texas. His family last heard from him when he was in California just before being shipped out to the Pacific. On June 15th, 1945 he was in the jungle of Luzon in the Philippines when a sniper’s bullet killed him instantly. His family received word of his death some time later and that he had been buried in a temporary grave.
Three years later in 1948, his sister had received word that the body of Private Felix Longoria was being returned to the family. The body was shipped by train to Three Rivers and she took a bus trip from Corpus Christi to Three Rivers. Initially the Rice Funeral Home had told her they would handle the body and funeral but just as the train was arriving, his widow Beatrice and her young daughter were told that the funeral home could not provide chapel services because “the whites would not like it”. Other accounts have carried the quote as “I’m sorry, but the whites would object… because Mexicans are not served here.”
She called Dr. Hector Garcia, a well known physician and recent founder of the G.I. Forum, who got the message out to the press and to the young ambitious Senator from Texas, Lyndon B. Johnson.The Senator had been a school teacher in Texas for poor Hispanics. He once had donated 75% of his salary to help a school for Mexican-American children. The national press embarrassed the State of Texas when Walter Winchell said on a national radio broadcast “the state of Texas, which looms so large on the map, looks so small tonight….”.
Horace Busby in an interview years later stated that then Senator Johnson on hearing about the incident said “These boys go off and fight and die and they run into this at home.” He had been an aviator and awarded a Silver Star in the Pacific theater in 9142 before President Roosevelt ordered all members of Congress back to Washington. In a statement to Congress, the young Senator noted that he had found out that Mexican Americans were winning medals for courage more than any other group. On January 11th, 1949 he sent to the following telegram to group of over 1,000 people including Dr. Garcia which said ”I deeply regret to learn that the prejudice of some individuals extends even beyond this life. I have no authority over civilian funeral homes. Nor does the federal government. However, I have today made arrangements to have Felix Longoria buried with full military honors in Arlington National Cemetery here in Washington where , the honored dead of our nation’s war rest…. This injustice and prejudice is deplorable. I am happy to have a part seeing that this Texas hero is laid to rest with the honor and dignity his service deserves.” U.S. Senator Johnson, Lady Bird Johnson, Congressman John Lyle, and President Truman’s military aide, Gen. Harry H. Vaughan joined the Longoria family for a full military burial with honors at Arlington National Cemetery on February 16, 1949.
That was not the end of the story. An official state inquiry found that there had been no wrong doing in Three Rivers. Since that time many have questioned the motives of the ambitious young Senator and what was really said. Unfortunately, the truth is that the Longoria family really just wanted Felix Longoria to be buried close to home and in that simple request there was no mercy. Today LONGORIA, FELIX Z ,PVT USAGF- 27TH INF rests in Section 34 of the Arlington National Cemetery.
Felix Longoria was a hero but so was the late Hector Garcia-Founder of the G.I. Forum, Beatrice Longoria-wife, Sara Posas-sister, then Senator Lyndon B. Johnson who took a political chance for a righteous cause and many others who stood up for what was just. The shy Beatrice Longoria died at the age of 88 this year (shown at the right).
Years from now what will future generations say about what we are doing now for our veterans?
