Senate Adopts Resolutions Honoring Former Member, WWII Hero
AUSTIN - With the 77th Legislature in its final days, the Senate today paid its respects to a former member who died May 7.
The Senate unanimously adopted Senate Resolution (SR) 1121 in remembrance of Raul R. Longoria, a Rio Grande Valley resident who had a long career in public service.
Longoria served in the House of Representatives from 1960 to 1972, when he was elected to the Senate. He resigned his Senate seat in 1981 to become the 139th District Judge in Hidalgo County. He retired in 1994.
Senators who served with him in both the House and Senate remembered him as a friend of working people and a champion of Hispanic causes including higher education and the welfare and protection of migrant workers.
Ten members of the Longoria family were on the Senate floor when the resolution was adopted on a unanimous vote. SR 1121 was sponsored by Corpus Christi Sen. Carlos F. Truan and co sponsored by the rest of the members of the Senate and Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff.
Also in today's session, the Senate unanimously adopted SR 1111 in recognition of Doris "Dorie" Miller, a hero of the attack on Pearl Harbor, on the day of the Doris Miller Celebration at the Capitol.
Miller was born in Waco in 1919 and enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1939. His ship, the U.S.S. West Virginia, was attacked by Japanese airplanes on Dec. 7, 1941, while it was docked at Pearl Harbor.
In the midst of the attack and under heavy fire and bomb explosions, Miller pulled the seriously wounded captain of the ship to safety. Miller then manned a machine-gun position at which the gunner had been killed and returned fire at the Japanese airplanes.
He was awarded the Navy Cross, the Navy's highest honor, by Adm. Chester Nimitz on May 27, 1942. Miller was later among the 646 sailors who were killed when their ship was sunk by a torpedo on Nov. 24, 1943.
After SR 1111 was adopted, the Senate then adopted SR 1206, a measure sponsored by Waco Sen. David Sibley that urges Congress to award Miller the Congressional Medal of Honor, the nation's highest award for military service.
The Senate stands adjourned until 10 a.m. Saturday.
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