Traces of Texas reader Amanda Nichols kindly sent in these two photos, which describe the sad event in Texas history that came to be known as The Longoria Affair. The Longoria Affair occurred when the remains of Felix Longoria, killed in 1945 by a Japanese machine gunner in the Phillipines, were returned to his hometown of Three Rivers, Texas in 1949, several years after the war. Tom Kennedy, the director of the funeral home in Three Rivers, refused to host a wake for Longoria in the funeral home because Longoria was of Mexican descent. Things snowballed to the point that it became a national cause celebre and LBJ got involved. Longoria was eventually interred in Arlington National Cemetery. The first photo shows the remains of the funeral home, the second a historical marker that was placed in front of it to commemorate The Longoria Affair. For more on what happened, heres the Wikipedia entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Felix_Z._Longoria,_Jr. Thank you, Amanda! Its important to remember that not all of Texas history is valor and swagger and cowboys and oil wells.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Sep 2014 17:34:30 +0000
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