The death of Mickey Leland, the birth of the Texas Limited and more from August 1989

Scene outside St. Anne Catholic Church during funeral for late Congressman Mickey Leland, Aug. 19, 1989. Scene outside St. Anne Catholic Church during funeral for late Congressman Mickey Leland, Aug. 19, 1989. Photo: E. Joseph Deering, Houston Chronicle Photo: E. Joseph Deering, Houston Chronicle Image 1 of / 60 Caption Close The death of Mickey Leland, the birth of the Texas Limited and more from August 1989 1 / 60 Back to Gallery

Another month, another trip back 30 years. Here's what was going on here in August 1989.

* Tragedy struck when Houston Congressman Mickey Leland died in a plane crash while on a hunger relief mission to Ethiopia.

At the time the plane carrying him and more than a dozen others went missing, his party was heading from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to refugee camps near the Sudan border. For days, family, friends and aides held out hope that the Lubbock-born, Fifth Ward-raised politician was safe, just incommunicado for the time being.

But on Aug. 13, following nearly a week of vigils in Houston and Washington, the remains of Leland and others in his party were found amid the wreckage of their twin-engine aircraft on a steep mountainside.

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At a funeral Mass for Leland, Son Van Nguyen stood in line with his young son. The previous year, KTRK's Marvin Zindler and Leland worked to reunite Nguyen with his son and daughter, who were in a Vietnamese orphanage. Leland was credited with bringing the two children to Houston.

"He was a great man," Nguyen told Chronicle reporters Susan Warren and Thom Marshall. "He helped a lot of people. He helped me and my family come together and we will always remember him."

These days, Leland's name can most noticeably be found on Terminal D at Bush Intercontinental Airport. A federal building downtown is also named after the Wheatley High grad.

* In a throwback to the days when Houstonians could board an interurban to Galveston, the Texas Limited made its debut on Labor Day Weekend 1989.

Adult round-trip fares cost between $25 and $30 and service was limited to Thursday-Sunday. Instead of riding on a glorified streetcar, five vintage railroad cars shuttled passengers between Houston's Amtrak station and the Galveston Railroad Museum. The two-hour, 15-minute ride took much longer than a typical drive between both cities. Didn't help that the trains went about 35 mph.

Operations ended in the mid-1990s.

See more from the summer of 1989 in the photos above.

J.R. Gonzales, a third-generation Houstonian, covers local history with an eye toward the people and events that have mostly been forgotten to time. Follow him through Bayou City History on Facebook and Twitter. He can be reached at 713-362-6163 or john.gonzales@chron.com.