‘A grateful nation’: For 87 years, Texarkana Funeral Home has helped the region honor its veterans
On Veterans Day, a look at the quiet work of honoring those who served, from the folded flag to the final notes of taps.
On Veterans Day, a look at the quiet work of honoring those who served, from the folded flag to the final notes of Taps.
TEXARKANA — When a veteran dies in the Texarkana area, the last salute often happens in a quiet chapel or at a graveside on a weekday afternoon, far from parades and speeches.
A flag is lifted from the casket and folded 13 times into a tight triangle of blue and white stars. A member of the honor guard kneels before the family and presents it “on behalf of the President of the United States … and a grateful nation.” A bugler, or a recording, plays taps.
For 87 years, Texarkana Funeral Home has been among the people making sure those moments happen.
The funeral home was founded in 1939 by Howard Fuqua and Harry L. Everett at Sixth and Main streets in downtown Texarkana, according to the company’s history. That was two years before Pearl Harbor. In the decades since, its staff have arranged services for local men and women who served in World War II, Korea, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and for the families they left behind.
The business moved to Texas Boulevard in 1966, opened Chapelwood Funeral Home in Nash in 2000 and added a Texarkana, Arkansas, location on Parkway Drive in 2005. It acquired Memorial Gardens Cemetery in Miller County in 2016. It is now led by Vickers Fuqua, a third-generation funeral director who joined the family business in 1990.
Article continues below
▼ Continue reading
What every veteran is owed
Under federal law, every eligible veteran is entitled to military funeral honors at no cost to the family. At a minimum, that means an honor detail of at least two uniformed service members, the folding and presentation of the U.S. flag, and the playing of taps, according to the Department of Defense. Many services also include a rifle detail and a color guard.
Families do not have to arrange those honors themselves. In most cases, the funeral director contacts the military branch on the family’s behalf, which can be a help to people navigating the first hours after a death.
Texarkana Funeral Home keeps a plain-language guide to veterans’ burial benefits on its website, drawn from U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs information. It explains that military funeral honors can include taps, a rifle detail, a color guard and uniformed service members who fold and present the flag, and that the flag typically goes to the veteran’s next of kin or a close friend.
The guide also lays out who may be buried in a VA national cemetery: veterans who did not receive a dishonorable discharge, service members who died on active duty or during training, the spouse or minor child of a veteran, even if the veteran died first, and in some cases a veteran’s unmarried adult dependent child.
VA burial benefits can help cover burial, funeral and transportation costs, and eligible veterans can receive a government headstone or marker, a burial flag and a Presidential Memorial Certificate. For deaths that are not service-connected, the VA requires burial allowance claims to be filed within two years of the veteran’s burial or cremation. There is no time limit for a service-connected burial, plot or interment allowance. Claims can be filed online at va.gov or by mail using VA Form 21P-530EZ.
The VA also provides a headstone at no charge for the unmarked grave of an eligible veteran. Families can request one with VA Form 40-1330. More information is available at va.gov/burials-memorials or by calling the VA at 1-800-827-1000.
Remembering together
The funeral home’s role in honoring veterans has extended beyond individual services.
In 2014 and 2015, Texarkana Funeral Home hosted Memorial Day services at Hillcrest Memorial Park, part of a day of remembrance across the city that also included ceremonies at the Korea-Vietnam Memorial, TXK Today reported at the time.
In May 2025, the funeral home held a Memorial Day service at Chapelwood Cemetery on Kings Highway. Army veteran Charles Jordan served as master of ceremonies for the ceremony, which honored the men and women who died in service to the country.
Why it matters
Veterans Day, observed each Nov. 11, honors everyone who has served in the U.S. armed forces, living and dead. It began as Armistice Day, marking the end of fighting in World War I at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918.
Thousands of veterans call the Texarkana area home, and many will be honored today at schools, restaurants and ceremonies across both states. For some families, though, Veterans Day is also a reminder of a folded flag that now sits on a mantel or in a shadow box, and of the day it was placed in their hands.
That moment lasts only a few seconds. For the families who receive it, it lasts much longer.