Felix Lozada

West Dallas activist and World War II veteran Felix H. Lozada Sr. died Tuesday of cancer in his home in the neighborhood he fought to improve and preserve. He was 94.

A wake will be from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. Friday at St. Mary of Carmel Catholic Church at 2900 Vilbig Road. A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Saturday at the same church. Burial will follow at Calvary Hill Cemetery.

"I want people to remember him as a joyful man, full of life," said his daughter, Maria G. Garcia. "He was just an amazing, amazing man."

Her father instructed all his children to treat everyone equally and with great respect. He would tell them: "You are no better than a homeless person, and you are no less than the president of the United States. ... You are all children of God."

Four weeks ago, Lozada was honored when a pedestrian bridge plaza into West Dallas was named after him. The bridge was named after former mayor Ron Kirk. Collectively, it had been known as the Continental Avenue Bridge and West Dallas Gateway.

Lozada, the son of Mexican immigrants, served in the U.S. Navy in World War II. He worked as a barber and a baker but was best known for persistent battles on behalf of West Dallas residents. He and his first wife, Guadalupe Marceleño Lozada, fought against the high infant mortality rates in West Dallas by getting a mobile medical clinic. That morphed into Los Barrios Unidos Community Clinic on Singleton Boulevard.

He also fought for low-income housing by serving on the nonprofit board of Vecinos Unidos. And late in life, Lozada and his neighbors took on Trinity Groves developers, who put built a restaurant complex and purchased land on the north and south sides of Singleton Boulevard.

In 2012, an ordinance was passed by the Dallas City Council that prohibited new residential construction higher than 27 feet. The measure was aimed at keeping out pricey town homes and lofts in his La Bajada neighborhood.

Though Lozada completed only the seventh grade, he said he studied Robert's Rules of Order so he and his wife could better defend their community's interests. In interviews this year, Lozada said he was good at mathematics and that protected him from being cheated in work and business deals.

Asked what made him proud, an aw-shucks look spread across his creased face. Favors, he said, were so important.

"Do the favor," he said. "Don't look at who you've done it for."

In the days before his death, word spread that Lozada, a lifelong athlete, was losing his battle with cancer. A procession of people came to pay their last respects. They included Mexican-American historians, neighbors, men who had played baseball for Lozada as boys, and state Rep. Roberto Alonzo and his sister, Dallas Mayor Pro Tem Monica Alonzo.

Jazz singer Andrea Dawson came, too. She sang “Amazing Grace" and "Ave Maria" to Lozada, who loved her music and all music.

On Sunday, the Lozada family put out a sign on the Bataan Street porch where a faded U.S. flag flew. "Our father is declining fast and now is incoherent." They asked to spend their time alone with him at home.

Lozada was preceded in death by his first wife, Guadalupe Marceleño Lozada, and second wife, and Lillie Banda Lozada. He is survived by his wife, Maria Ramirez, and five children, Jose Lozada of Grand Prairie and Rosario Torres, Raul Lozada, Felix Lozada Jr., and Maria G. Garcia, all of Dallas; five grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.

In lieu of flowers, my father would prefer in his name for donations to be made to the Senior Center in West Dallas, checks payable to 2800 N. Britian Rd. Irving, TX 75062. His last wish was to establish a center dedicated to Senior Citizens of West Dallas.