H. Res. 519 

In the House of Representatives, U. S., 

July 23, 2007. 

Whereas, 100 years ago on July 11, 1907, Tom Lea was 

born in El Paso, Texas, to former El Paso Mayor Tom 

Lea, Sr., and his wife Zola Utt Lea and spent the majority of his life in El Paso; 

Whereas Tom Lea served as an accredited war artist correspondent for Life magazine during World War II, traveled over 100,000 miles as an eye-witness reporter, landed with the First Marines on Peleliu during 1942, and 

accompanied American forces in the North Atlantic during 1941, fighter pilots aboard the USS Hornet in the 

South Pacific during 1942, and American forces in China 

during 1943; 

Whereas many of Tom Lea’s paintings from World War II 

are in the United States Army Center for Military History in Washington, DC, and are loaned to exhibitions 

worldwide; 

Whereas, when accepting the Republican nomination for 

President of the United States in 2000, George W. Bush 

quoted Tom Lea about living on the ‘‘sunrise side of the 

mountain’’; 

Whereas Tom Lea’s painting Rio Grande today hangs in the 

Oval Office at the White House; 
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Whereas Tom Lea’s works are found throughout Washington, 

DC and Texas, including in the Rayburn House Office 

Building, which displays his portrait of Sam Rayburn; 

the Smithsonian American Art Museum; the Dallas Museum of Art; the El Paso Museum of Art; the University 

of Texas at El Paso; Texas A&M University; and the 

University of Texas at Austin; 

Whereas Tom Lea painted several notable murals, including 

the Texas Centennial mural and, under the Department 

of Treasury’s Section of Fine Arts mural competition 

programs, The Nesters mural for the Benjamin Franklin 

Post Office in Washington, DC; the Pass of the North 

mural for the Federal Courthouse in El Paso, Texas; the 

Stampede mural for the Odessa, Texas Post Office; the 

Comancheros mural for the Seymour, Texas Post Office; 

and the Back Home mural for the Pleasant Hill, Missouri Post Office; 

Whereas Tom Lea was also an accomplished author and illustrator whose works included the two-volume annotated 

history The King Ranch (published in 1957), in addition 

to four novels and two non-fiction books, of which, The 

Brave Bulls (published in 1949) and The Wonderful 

Country (published in 1952), were adapted as screenplays for motion pictures; 

Whereas Tom Lea during his life was honored with several 

awards, including the Navy Distinguished Public Service 

Award, the United States Marine Corps’ Colonel John W. 

Thomason, Jr. Award, and the National Cowboy and 

Western Heritage Museum’s Great Westerners Award; 

Whereas President and Mrs. George W. Bush are serving as 

Honorary Chairs of the International Advisory Board for 

the 2007 Tom Lea Centennial Celebration, a month-long 
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series of events in the Southwest that seeks to ensure 

that the richness and diversity of Tom Lea’s legacy will 

nourish generations to come; and 

Whereas Tom Lea’s war diaries are to be published by Texas 

A&M Press in 2008: Now, therefore, be it 

Resolved, That the House of Representatives honors the 

life and accomplishments of Tom Lea. 

Attest: 

Clerk.