This weekend we celebrate the creation of this country, friends and family filled a Dallas church to say “thank you” for the life and service of Homer Hogues. Hogues passed away Tuesday at the age of 96 and was one of the final surviving members of the Tuskegee Airmen.
Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price described the service not as a funeral, but as a ‘legacy of history’.
“This gentleman went against the odds when the odds were clearly against him but he performed,” Price said. “He was a staple in this community.”
Hogues' passing means there is only one surviving Tuskegee Airmen still known to be living in North Texas.
Get top local stories in DFW delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC DFW's News Headlines newsletter.
Retired U.S. Air Force Colonel Lloyd McKeethen lives in Dallas and will turn 97 later this month.
Alyssa Seyfried says she realized the significance of her grandfather’s life and legacy for as long as she can remember.
“I grew up with these stories, it’s something I’ve heard my entire life through my parents, through my grandfather directly,” Seyfried said.
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
McKeethen was part of the first group of Black airmen to fly combat missions in the U.S. armed forces during World War II. Other members of the group, including Hogues, worked on various aircraft as mechanics at the airbase in Alabama.
McKeethen would go on to serve in Korea and Vietnam and earned the distinction as the ‘Last Lonely Eagle’, given to the last Tuskegee Airmen to retire from the military after 31 years of service.
Seyfried credits her grandfather’s service, and that of her parents, in helping her decide to serve too in the U.S. Army.
“Hearing it from other people, having my instructors at West Point teach me my grandfather’s history is just so surreal because it hits home knowing it’s so important.”
