DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker at Texas City Memorial Cemetery has to say — and friend, it's one you'll want to hear slow. April 16th and 17th, 1947. Two ships docked at the Texas City port.
Explosions — disastrous ones — ripped through both of them. Hundreds of people killed, just like that. In the weeks that followed, relief workers led by the American Red Cross and other volunteers faced a task as grim as any you can imagine: figuring out who the dead were.
Temporary morgues were set up in the Central High School gymnasium and out at Camp Wallace, a former Army post. They worked through it all. When the counting was done, 444 people were confirmed dead.
Another 143 were listed as missing. And 63 bodies — 63 souls — could never be identified. Now here's where the story turns on a single, quiet detail.
In 1947, Texas City had no public cemetery. None. A burial committee, appointed by local officials, went out and used donated funds to purchase a two-acre tract of land.
They made plans. Sunday, June 22nd. That would be the day.
What happened on that Sunday is worth stopping the truck for. An interfaith and interracial funeral service was conducted before an estimated 5,000 mourners. Funeral homes from 28 towns provided individual caskets and hearses.
Florists from throughout Texas donated flowers. Five thousand people showing up for 63 strangers — that tells you something about the weight of what had happened, and something about Texas too. The Texas City Memorial Cemetery is still reserved for those 63 people.
Unknown by name, every one of them. And every year, on the 16th of April, a memorial service is held to remember them still. Sixty-three people the world couldn't name — but hasn't forgotten either.
What the marker says
On April 16 and 17, 1947, disastrous explosions aboard two ships docked at the Texas City port killed hundreds of people. In the weeks that followed, relief workers led by the American Red Cross and other volunteers labored to identify the victims. Temporary morgues were set up in the Central High school gymnasium and at Camp Wallace, a former Army post. Eventually, 444 people were confirmed dead, and an additional 143 were listed as missing. Sixty-three bodies were never identified. There was no public cemetery in Texas City in 1947. A burial committee appointed by local officials used donated funds to purchase this two-acre tract of land and made plans to bury the unidentified victims on Sunday, June 22. An interfaith and interracial funeral service was conducted before an estimated 5,000 mourners. Funeral homes from 28 towns provided individual caskets and hearses, and florists from throughout Texas donated flowers. The Texas City Memorial Cemetery is still reserved for the 63 people who, although unknown by name, are remembered each year at a memorial service on the 16th of April.