The Felix H. Morales Funeral Home, now on Canal Street, opened in 1931 as the first Hispanic-owned funeral home in Houston. Felix Morales and Angela Morales had married in San Antonio in 1928 and moved to Houston a few years later, at a time when segregation made it difficult for Mexican American families to bury their dead. The business held the first Harris County contract for indigent burials, and the family also established the first cemetery for Hispanic people in Houston and a fraternal burial society. In 1942, with Felix facing a possible wartime draft, Angela Morales earned her mortician's license, becoming the first woman in Harris County to hold one. After the war the couple founded KLVL, Houston's first Spanish-language radio station, which went on the air on May 5, 1950, under the name La Voz Latina. Its studio stood on the funeral home's property, and alongside Tejano music it ran a program called Yo Necesito Trabajo to help newly arrived immigrants find jobs.
The funeral home building was restored in 1992, and the following year the founders' granddaughter, Christina Morales, took over the business. She was elected a state representative in 2019, and in 2021 the Texas House of Representatives marked the funeral home's ninetieth anniversary with a resolution.
Getting there
29.7552, -95.3419
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