Medal of Honor recipients to get highway sign

Legislation that would recognize three Medal of Honor recipients from Riverside on a portion of Highway 91 is waiting for the governor’s signature, after the state Assembly unanimously approved it Monday, July 13.

State Sen. Richard Roth, D-Riverside, proposed the resolution that would designate the 91 freeway from Madison Street to Third Street as the “Staff Sergeant Salvador J. Lara, Staff Sergeant Ysmael R. Villegas and Sergeant Jesus S. Duran Memorial Highway.”

Lara and Villegas were both from Riverside’s Casa Blanca neighborhood and served in the Army. Villegas died in comat, and Lara was injured while fighting and later died. Duran, who lived in Riverside as a child and young man, survived his Army service in the Vietnam War but was killed back home in 1977.

State policy requires highway memorial signs to be paid for privately rather than by taxpayers. The Casa Blanca Veterans of Foreign Wars post plans to raise money for the signs honoring Lara, Duran and Villegas, according to Roth’s office.