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Show SIOUX CITY SEQUELHeros Grave Ordered for Indian YetChicago Tribune Press ServiceSIOUX CITY, la., Aug. 29 The widow of a soldier killed in Korea, whose burial in a cemetery here was halted because he was an Indian, late Wednesday accepted President Trumans offer to provide him a heros grave in Arlington National Cemetery.Mrs. Evelyn Wilcox Rice, a white woman, said she would be very pleased to accept the offer of the final resting place for her husband, Sgt. John R. Rice, 38, the father of her three young children.The President had directed the Army to make arrangements for burial in the famed cemetery after learning that a grave here had been denied the Winebago Indian and that his body had remained at the grave site five hours Tuesday after the ceremonies were halted.The President also had instructed the Army to invite the dead soldiers family to come here at government expense for the rites. His widow and three children live on the farm of the mothers parents near Winnebago, Nebr., about 20 miles from here. The President feels that the national appreciation of patriotic sacrifice should not be limited by race, color or creed, Maj. Gen. Harry H, Vaughan, White House military aide, had telegraphed city officials here in announcing that burial among the nations war heroes had been authorized.Sgt. Rice, a 10 year Army veteran who fought through World War II in the South Pacific, was killed in action in Korea on Sept. 6, 1950.Following full military services at the grave site and the departure of the mourners, including the widow, a cemetery official halted interment in the cemetery here, an elaborately landscaped, 70 acre plot which has a lake, swans and a carillon tower and prohibits upright tombstones.Cemetery officials objected to the burial on the ground it violated a clause in all lot purchase contracts prohibiting the interment of any others except the white race.Mrs. Rice had purchased a lot in the cemetery without noticing the provision that barred her husband from burial. Picture on page 3. |