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Buffalo Soldier Laid To Rest In Arkansas

DEWITT, Ark. (KFSM) — The last known living Buffalo Soldier was laid to rest Saturday (Sept. 29) in Arkansas. Walter Gibson Sr. was 99 years old. Gibson s...

DEWITT, Ark. (KFSM) -- The last known living Buffalo Soldier was laid to rest Saturday (Sept. 29) in Arkansas.

Walter Gibson Sr. was 99 years old.

Gibson served in a segregated infantry division in 1941 during World War II.

The turnout at his funeral in Dewitt was testament to the impact he left on his small community.

Serving the country as a Buffalo Soldier was an accomplishment that not a single person there took lightly.

Walter Gibson Jr., son of Walter Gibson Sr. said, "it was history ... it was something nice to sit down and listen to. He would tell me stories all the time. Matter of a fact, when he got sick, he had dementia, he would always bring up his time in the service, and I would sit down and listen to him and absorb all that I could."

While enlisted in the U.S. Army, one of Gibson's most notable achievements was aiding in protection of the Hoover Dam after Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941.

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