Posts in category: centenarians

It was 1943 when 21-year-old Ruth Chan enlisted in the Army Air Force Women’s Army Corps. “I really believed that if I volunteered, the war would end sooner,” she says. “I thought our fellows, including my brother Edward, could come home sooner.”

Vivacious still, though almost 101, Ruth lives with her daughter Gwen in the Pocket. She says her hearing and memory aren’t very good, but I beg to differ.  Her wartime memories are vivid, and she’s a very good mahjong player.  At our weekly games, she wins more than she loses.

Her parents were Chinese immigrants. Her father, Chuck Wing Chan, landed in New Orleans in 1906. He later moved to the San Francisco Bay Area and married Lum Sue Ying from Guangdong. They eventually settled in Locke and operated the Happy Café on Main Street. Ruth and her four siblings were born in Walnut Grove; older brother Edward was born in China.

After graduating from high school, she moved to Sacramento for college and worked as a live-in maid for $20 a month. But she sought adventure and heard the patriotic call to serve in WWII.  So one day, she found herself downtown signing papers to join the military.

Basic training was in Iowa, where she was the only Chinese woman in her unit. She recalls early morning reveille and marching all day. Her first assignment was clerical work at Moody Air Force Base in Georgia. Being tall, she was recruited as captain of the women’s basketball team. On game days, they traveled to different bases in cargo planes, sitting on wooden crates. “Now you couldn’t pay me to travel like that,” she says.

Ruth then moved to Mitchel Air Force Base in New York, where she helped care for injured servicemen. The work had two perks: 1) she could sleep in a hospital room and not the women’s barracks, and 2) she got to escort wounded soldiers to shows at Radio City Music Hall and on Broadway. “I enjoyed my time in the service,” says Ruth. “I was from a small town. I became more independent and confident.”

Ruth was subsequently promoted to the rank of Corporal. After her discharge in 1946, she returned to Sacramento and reconnected with a childhood friend, Harry Jang, a decorated veteran who was studying architecture at UC Berkeley.

Born in Courtland in 1919, Harry was one of 12 children. In the war, he wanted to be a pilot but was trained as a navigator and flew on B-17 bombers. Harry was sent to Thurleigh, England, and survived more than 35 missions over Germany. For his service, he was awarded the medal of Distinguished Flying Cross. The classic war movie “Twelve O’Clock High” was based on his squadron. Both Harry and Ruth received Congressional Gold Medals in 2020.

With the war behind them, the couple married, worked, raised three children and settled into retirement. Next to mahjong, Ruth’s other favorite pastime was golfing; she attained a handicap of 17. Harry died from a stroke in 1998 and is buried at Arlington National Cemetery. “A place has been reserved for me at Arlington. I look forward to being with Harry again,” Ruth says.

Life is made up of moments…some good, some disappointing. Teruko (Terry) Hirakida has experienced lots of these moments in her 100 years of living. But she has many more good than sad moments to remember.

She was born in August 1923 in Broderick, California. Terry’s parents were Japanese immigrants who farmed in Auburn. Masaru and Hatsuye Kitagawa harvested cherries and pears. Besides Terry, they also had one son, Henry. As most children of farmers did, Terry helped with farm chores and learned to drive a tractor at a young age.

She was in her senior year at Placer Union High School when the family received notice they had to leave their farm. It was 1942. They were sent to the Tule Lake internment camp. Before they left, Terry recalls the family buried a box of valuables in the fields. The cache is probably still there, as the family never went back to retrieve it..

Her family lived on Block 51. They shared the area with four other families. In camp, she met Ichiro Hirakida, born in San Francisco. They married in June 1944. Terry gave birth to her first daughter, Lucille Reiko, in October 1945. When the camp closed, Terry’s parents and brother returned to Auburn.

Terry and Ichiro moved to Honolulu, Hawaii. They lived with one of his uncles.  “The uncle didn’t like me because he had another girl picked out for Ichiro. But we were already married,” said Terry. The young family only stayed for two years before relocating to Sacramento.  Their second daughter, Peggy, was born there in April 1949.

Later in life, Terry found work with the State of California, working for the Department of Motor Vehicles.  She worked there for 28 years, retiring in August 1985.

She has stayed busy after retiring. She loves going to Mahoroba Japanese Bakery and shopping with friends. She was very active with Tanoshimi-Kai, attending their luncheons and organizing their casino bus trips.  She coordinated these bus trips well into her 90s.

Terry lived in her own home until October 2022, when she moved into Maple Tree Village. She enjoys the different activities they offer. One of her favorites is bingo and taking field trips with other residents. Terry’s husband passed away in 1995, and her daughter Reiko passed in 2006. Though she has experienced major personal losses, she still finds much joy these days with her daughter Peggy, son-in-law Mark Ginsberg, four grandchildren and four great-grandchildren – having many good moments that she appreciates at this time in her life.

From the rural setting of Cienega Valley in San Benito County to the urban enclave of Fresno, Toshi Sakai has experienced many life-changing moments during her 100 years.

Her parents, Tsutomu and Sadae Awaya, immigrated to California from Japan. Their first child remained in Japan with relatives. Toshi was their second child; she was born on March 8, 1923, their first child born in the U.S. Three more siblings followed.

Her parents tended lettuce fields owned by the Smith family. The Smiths’ daughter, Georgia, became one of Toshi’s closest friends.  Toshi’s mother, Sadae, maintained the outdoor bathhouse and fed the other farmworkers.

Toshi remembers that she had lots of freedom growing up on the farm.  She drove tractors and trucks as early as 11 years old.  The times when the family visited friends and her father had consumed a few drinks, she would be the “designated driver” for the trip home.

She was attending Salinas Junior College in 1942 when her family was sent to Poston, Arizona. Camp was different, but okay, she says. She recalls working as the medical director’s secretary and being good at playing soccer. 

Toshi and her sister, Aki, were allowed to leave Poston in 1945 to find work to support their family. Aki went to Philadelphia; Toshi headed for San Francisco. She worked as a medical transcriber for a doctor and did housework in exchange for room and board.

Upon release from camp, the rest of her family left for Gilroy Hot Springs.  Her father was ill and went to a TB ward in San Jose. After he passed, the family moved to San Francisco.

In the early ’50s, she met Robert Sakai, who lived in Fresno. His family had been sent to the Gila River camp, but he was allowed to leave early for college in Minnesota. Soon after, he was drafted into the Army. When the war ended, he returned to Fresno and managed Payless Market.

After a short courtship, Robert and Toshi married in June 1953. They set up home in Fresno and raised two daughters, Carrie and Leslie. They loved traveling and made frequent road trips to Yosemite and Pismo Beach before Robert passed in 2013.

In her spare time, Toshi took art classes at a community college.  She was a gifted natural artist, creating large pottery pieces, watercolors, and still life drawings. Her Greenhaven Terrace apartment is filled with lots of art and family photos. 

Toshi got a surprise dinner to celebrate birthday #100. Her church minister from Fresno and numerous longtime friends attended. How has she lived so long?  She credits it to her family, good nutrition, staying physically active, and her love of creating art.

Ruby Tom was born in Hong Kong on April 24, 1924, and is 99 years young!  She lived in Hong Kong until she was 12 years old, when her family returned to their village in China. Ruby recalls great memories of school in Hong Kong and China. While living in the Guangzhou Province, Ruby met her husband, Edward Tom. They were introduced by her sister and her sister’s husband as they both lived on the same street. They migrated to the U.S. in 1948, where they settled in San Jose. They then moved to Wyoming to help her father-in-law’s restaurant business, and later returned to the Bay Area.  While her husband worked in a grocery store, Ruby worked as a seamstress for the Roughrider Men’s Jeans Factory. They then moved to Napa, where they opened a Mom and Pop grocery store, Tom’s Market.  In the early 1980s, the Toms retired and moved to Sacramento, where they doted on their grandchildren. Edward passed away in January 2018.

Ruby has three wonderful daughters, Gail, Dale, and Alice, son Raymond, four grandchildren, and three great grandchildren. Ruby is very independent, according to her daughter Gail. For decades, Ruby walked daily along the canal at Portuguese Park, where she caught up with old friends and made new friends. Ruby plays mahjong at ACC three times a week and enjoys the social interaction with all her friends. When you stop by ACC, you can see everyone having a great time, smiling, and laughing in between the serious playing of the mahjong tiles. She and her daughters are grateful for ACC and for the many activities they offer to the community’s senior citizens.  The initiative, effort, and foresight of super volunteers like Linda Fong and Jo Fong is the reason there is a mahjong club.  It offers a place that is welcoming, warm, inviting, inclusive and positive.  

Gail shared that Ruby is known for her vegetable gardening. Ruby has a “green thumb” as she grows long beans, winter melon, zucchini, tomatoes, and cucumbers. All the right vegetables for living a long life. Ruby says she is grateful and appreciative for the people in her life.

Ruby values her recognition by ACC as a centenarian and proudly displays her key to the city and letter from Congresswoman Doris Matsui on her living room mantel next to her husband’s Congressional Medal of Honor.

For most of his youth, Tommy Chan lived at the Chung Mei Boys Home in San Francisco. Dr. Charles Shephard, a Baptist minister, started the home for boys of Chinese heritage.  Some were orphans, some abandoned; others were there because their parents could no longer care for them.

Tommy was born in April 1920 in Fresno, the youngest of eight kids. His family moved to San Francisco when he was seven years old.  When he was nine years old, he moved into the Boys Home and left when he was 18.

When his merchant father passed, the family went back to China. After two years, they returned to San Francisco. Tommy enrolled at Galileo High School and loved taking woodwork classes.  As an adult, he loved doing carpentry projects. He left school before graduation to help two of his brothers run a butcher shop in Sacramento. He subsequently earned his GED.

One day, he met Sandra Fong at the Pagoda Café.  Sandra had come to the U.S. as a young child.  Her parents owned a poultry business, Sheu Fong Company, at 422 I Street. She was already engaged to a sailor, so Tommy didn’t pursue her.

Tommy went into the U.S. Army after WWII started. He completed basic training in Texas and was assigned to the 39th Combat Engineer Battalion. He worked with land mines and anti-tank retreats. He traveled to the Mediterranean with his unit. In recognition of his service, Tommy was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal in 2021.

Tommy returned to Sacramento after the war ended. He heard that Sandra was no longer engaged but learned she had another suitor. Undeterred, he pursued and eventually won her affection. They married in 1949, officiated by his mentor, Dr. Shephard. Tommy and Sandra had three daughters, Carolyn, Gale, and Donna.  Settling in Greenhaven, Tommy worked in local grocery stores.

For over 30 years, Tommy and Sandra volunteered for ACC.  He and Sandra were part of the first set of volunteers running bingo games. Tommy photographed all the fundraising activities, including all of the crab feeds and special events. His photographs are invaluable in documenting the history of ACC. The couple also volunteered for other community organizations like My Sister’s House. 

Tommy feels he’s fortunate to be living so long. He’s grateful to be surrounded by his family and attentive caregivers. During our visit, he told me his favorite food is chocolate. He was all smiles when his lunch was served – it included a large slice of chocolate cake.

This past April, Hien Thi Nguyen celebrated her 100th birthday with family and the staff of the ACC Care Center. Affectionately called Grandma Hien, she is a prime example of the perseverance of the human spirit.  Born in Hanoi in April 1923, her life journey has been filled with challenges and heartache.  With the love and support of family, she has persevered through it all.

Hien was working in a clothing factory when she met Nguyen, the love of her life. They married in 1941. Their early years together were a happy time; they spent many hours nurturing their rose garden. To this day, red roses are still her favorite flower.

Then the Great Vietnamese Famine of 1944-1945 occurred. Nguyen would leave home for weeks in search of work and food. Home alone, Hien found solace in caring for neighborhood children while their parents sought work. Having lost twin daughters early in her marriage, Hien treated these children as if they were her own. She was an early recycler, sewing pillows and blankets for the children from old clothing. 

Tragically, her husband died in 1950. She and her two sisters sought refuge in South Vietnam. Hien and her older sister, Thom, found work in a local restaurant bar. In 1970, Hien adopted Ngoc, a two-year-old girl. Ngoc’s parents were an American soldier and a Vietnamese woman. In 1975, she adopted her niece’s son, Trung Chau, who suffered from cerebral palsy and mental deficiencies. 

Thom and her family left Vietnam in 1984 and eventually settled in South Sacramento. In 1990, Hien was 67 years old when she and her two children arrived in California. The family settled in a neighborhood not far from other members of Thom’s family.

After settling into life in the U.S., daughter Ngoc Nguyen went to beauty school and opened a nail salon. At age 91, the family realized Hien was unable to live alone. Ngoc sold her business and became a full-time caregiver for Hien.

Grandma Hien has been a resident at the ACC Care Center for the past four years. The family is grateful for the compassionate staff and quality of care given to her. Grandma Hien enjoys the social activities offered, pet therapy, and outings with her family. 

Having unconditional love and support of her family has been a constant pillar of strength that has carried Grandma Hien through her 100-year life journey. In recognition of this achievement, City Councilmember Rick Jennings presented her with a very special birthday gift – a key to the city.

Virginia Gee has had 100 years of experience perfecting her culinary skills, which her family says she is known for. From Sacramento to Marysville and points in between, she has fed comfort Chinese food and homemade herbal soups to her family and friends.

She spent the first 18 years of her life in Sacramento. The oldest of nine children born to Chinese immigrants, she attended Lincoln Elementary and graduated from Sacramento High School. Her family lived in Land Park, not far from the former Jumbo Market that was located on South Land Park Drive. Her family was among the first Asians to own a home in this neighborhood.  Her mother, Wong Shee Fong, was a housewife; her father, Fred Fong, co-owned a barbershop in Old Sacramento with his cousin.

Shortly after graduating from high school, relatives introduced her to Jack Gee. He was 28 years old and working at Yuba Grocery with his cousin.  The couple married and she moved to Marysville to start her own family. They had six children: Carolyn, Beverly, Christine, Cynthia, Wendall, and Roddy.

Their first home was in downtown Marysville. When the home got too small for their growing family, they moved to a larger home in East Marysville, near Ellis Lake.  Virginia devoted her life to raising her children, making homemade herbal soups that was always a mainstay on the dinner table. “She’d make sure we drank some right before we went to bed,” says daughter, Beverly Chan. “She believed that the medicinal properties would be better absorbed in our bodies while we slept.”

Meanwhile, Jack and his cousin opened another grocery store called Yuba Market. After Jack passed away in 1973, Virginia went to work at the Del Monte Peach Cannery. It was a seasonal job, but she loved it.  She enjoyed socializing with the other workers. When she wasn’t at the cannery, Virginia filled her days gardening, making blankets, and cooking for everyone. Roddy says her fried rice was famous.  She lovingly labored over the annual Chinese New Year meal. She didn’t play mahjong, but she regularly cooked for her friends that did play. Beverly recalls drinking “brown soup” every winter.  The soup involved simmering deer hooves for hours in herbal soup broth.

In 2013, Virginia moved back to Sacramento and into Greenhaven Terrace, where her brother, Kui Fong, was living. For the past seven years, she’s lived with Roddy and enjoys visits from her extended family that now includes five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

In March, Teruko Ono celebrated her 100th birthday at ACC with her mahjong friends. Born on March 9, 1923, in the city of Kyoto, Japan, Teruko grew up in a nice house with her parents, sister, and brother. She was the oldest of the three children. Her father, Kinoshuke Yamanaka, owned a lumber company. When World War II broke out, he sold his inventory and built rental homes.

Teruko met her future husband, Akira Ono, when he was a student at Kyoto University and she was a student at the Singer Sewing School, training to become a seamstress. Akira played the violin in the Kyoto University Symphony. One day, Teruko and a friend went to see one of the University Symphony concerts. After the performance, Akira and his orchestra friends met them in the audience and invited them to coffee. 

Teruko and Akira got married in 1946. These were tumultuous years in post-war Japan. While Akira worked as a government interpreter, Teruko stayed home to raise their kids. In 1950, Akira became a Buddhist minister. For Teruko, becoming a minister’s wife marked the beginning of a life of public service and doing things for others quietly behind the scenes. 

Her daughter, Junko Egi, recalls Teruko’s kindness and attentiveness throughout her childhood. “She made all of my clothes, and they were beautiful. I took piano lessons, and my mom would always listen to me play. Before each recital, she sewed me a new outfit.” 

Junko also recalls a day in kindergarten when her teacher asked her to draw a sun. “I had no idea what to do, so mom took me outside and very patiently showed me how by first drawing a circle. I will never forget that day.” 

Teruko was not only gifted in drawing but also in pastel painting, knitting, and crocheting. She loved Japanese food and was an excellent cook. With her formal training in dressmaking, she made dresses and kimonos for her family and friends. For ten years, she also studied the Japanese tea ceremony and taught it in Portland, Oregon, years later. Junko says her mom is very organized and proper, traits that she probably picked up from her training in the tea ceremony, which was performed for noble people and the Emperor of Japan.

In 1956, Akira was assigned a ministerial position in Fresno, and the family immigrated to the U.S. Because of his multiple assignments, they moved around a lot. Next, it was Odgen, Utah, then Lodi, Monterey, and Portland. By then, Teruko had taken up teaching the tea ceremony, opening up a school to teach this ceremonial art form. She had more than 30 students.

Teruko says that being 100 years old “feels like a dream.” She attributes her long life to what she eats, which is mostly fish, chicken, and rice. She has also stayed mentally and socially active by playing mahjong at ACC three days a week. Junko is always by her side.

Life in Hawaii in the 1930s was drastically different than it is today. Back then, Hawaii was a U.S. territory, not an official state. Visitors arrived by cruise ship, docking in Honolulu Harbor, not far from where Barbara Lee grew up. She was born in Honolulu in September 1923. Her father, Lee Ah Fey, was from Hawaii; her mother, Chew Shee, from China. She was the second of three girls.

The family home was in a small lane off Fort Street, now a main artery running through downtown Honolulu and Chinatown. The home no longer stands; it was torn down and replaced by commercial buildings when the area was redeveloped during the 1950s.

Chinatown was a thriving neighborhood when Barbara was growing up. As a child, she did all the grocery shopping. Every day, she’d leave home in the early morning hours – while her sisters were still sleeping! She’d purchase fresh produce, poultry, and fish from the outdoor open-air markets.

Barbara attended Central Intermediate School and McKinley High School, two of the oldest public schools on Oahu.  She graduated from McKinley in June 1941.

During her daily morning grocery run, she recalls seeing many planes in the sky on Dec 7, 1941. She learned later that the Japanese staged a surprise strike on Hawaii. Barbara’s life changed after the bombing of Pearl Harbor.

Upon graduation, Barbara got a job at the Pearl Harbor Navy Yard. It was during this time that she met her future husband, Nom Sing Lau (Bill).  Born in China, he had immigrated to the U.S. in 1938.  During WWII, he enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving as a Seabee from 1942 to 1945. He received the Bronze Star for his participation in the 1944 recapture of Guam.

After Bill was discharged, Barbara followed him to California. They were married in December 1946 and raised their three children, Yvonne, Johnston and Stanford, in South Sacramento. The extended family includes four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

“My mom’s baking was a highlight for us,” says Johnston. “She’d make German Chocolate Cake, Pig Pickin’ Cake, Krumkake cookies, and lots of other cookies. We enjoyed those much more than the Chinese medicinal soup we had to drink when we got sick!”

Barbara worked at Hale Brothers Dept. Store and later retired from the Franchise Tax Board.  Besides baking, Barbara stayed busy making clothes on her Singer machine, crocheting doilies for every room in the home, and knitting afghan blankets for everyone.

Barbara’s life is quieter now. Family visits are a highlight, especially if you bring madeleines, her favorite cookies.

Annie Joe turned 100 on May 25, 2023. She lives at Maple Tree Village, where she continues to live a full life. She started working by helping in her parents’ Stockton market, then worked in a restaurant, next as a seamstress, and ultimately ended with a career in the field of electronics.

Her parents immigrated from China and became farmworkers, harvesting asparagus near Ryde, California. They ultimately scraped together enough money to open a Chinese market and restaurant in Stockton. The third oldest of eight children, Annie and her siblings all worked in their parent’s Chinese market, which sold poultry, rice, and other goods. In addition to going to school and helping in the store, she cooked for the family. Annie also accompanied her father on his rounds to deliver goods. Her job was to stay with the horse and wagon to ward off thieves!

She attended Lafayette School in Stockton and, as many Chinese children did, attended Chinese school in the evenings and Saturdays. According to her granddaughter Allison Joe, Annie married early, but her husband passed soon after. She moved to San Francisco, where Annie met her second husband, James (Jimmy) Joe.  They had three children together, Dennis, Eric, and Spencer. The family later moved to Redwood City to help Annie’s sister Elsie run her restaurant, the Star Café. Jimmy passed away in the early 1980s.  Annie continued to work at Litton Electronics until she retired in 1988.

Annie then moved to Sacramento, where she met Richard Gottlieb, her third husband. He has now passed. Annie’s three remaining siblings are Harry, Elaine, and Frank, and she has eight grandchildren.

In 2019, Annie appeared in a pilot web series called “Honest Abe: The Backstory,” which was partially filmed in the Delta town of Locke. She is seen in the show standing at the counter in a store, quietly counting jujubes while the action flies around her. The pilot never became a full series, but we can add “actress” to her list of accomplishments.  

Annie has had many careers: store clerk, seamstress, cook, and assembly line worker. She shared that her long life must be “in the genes” as her father lived to be 102.  But more importantly, she said the key to a long life is “don’t think about it; just live it and be nice to people.”