A January 11, 1949, telegram from then-Senator Lyndon B. Johnson to Héctor P. García reveals the actions Johnson took to intervene after a Mexican American soldier was refused burial services by a Texas funeral home. Although he was killed in 1945, Felix Longoria’s remains were not returned to his family until 1949. After the Rice Funeral Home in Three Rivers, Texas, refused to bury Longoria’s body due to his ethnicity, Senator Johnson intervened on behalf of the family and arranged for Longoria to be given full military honors at Arlington National Cemetery.
