Jan. 5, 1922 – Feb. 14, 2012

Kay Yae Ogasawara passed away peacefully on Tuesday, Feb. 14, 2012, after a short illness, surrounded by her loving children, grandchildren and family. She had only recently celebrated her 90th birthday and was active until the day before her passing, and looking forward to playing Rummy Q with her friends.

She was born in Carlin, Nev., on Jan. 5, 1922, the daughter of Kinsaku and Urako Inouye and the oldest of five siblings. She graduated from Carlin High School in 1940, and attended the University of California at Berkeley as a nursing student, until mandatory evacuation from the West Coast in May 1942 due to World War II.

Kay married her high school sweetheart, Frank X. Ogasawara, in Salt Lake City, UT on August 11, 1945. They returned to California in August 1948 where her husband pursued his doctoral degree at the University of California at Davis. During her husband’s subsequent tenure as a professor at the University of California at Davis, she was known as a wonderful cook and hostess and will be remembered for her many large and popular faculty dinners.

She opened her heart and home to many visiting professors and families, and made a place at her table for numerous starving students. She also will be remembered gratefully by the many foreign students whom she taught English and how to drive.

She was an avid gardener and always had an overabundance of flowers, fruit and vegetables that she enjoyed sharing with her family and friends. She was affectionately called the “Plant Lady” and known for the numerous plant sales she held each year. She was busy preparing for her first plant sale of this year when she passed away. A final plant sale in her memory will be held at her home in March to benefit the UCD Arboretum.

She was a world traveler, and was fortunate to spend a year in Japan during a sabbatical with her husband and family. She took every opportunity to expose her children to aspects of Japanese culture, including woodblock printing by Tokuriki, sword-making by Shinto priests, the temple gardens of Nara, and Kay’s ancestral home of Hiroshima. Many of these trips were planned and hosted by her husband’s former graduate students.

She was one of the founding leaders of the Norwood 4-H Club; a board member of AARP in Davis; a lifetime member of the Friends of  the Arboretum; an active member of the Senior Center; a member of the Queen Bees; an avid supporter of Phi Kappa Phi, Florin JACL, the UCD Raptor Center and Davis Musical Theatre Company; and a founding member of the Woodland Gem and Mineral Society and the Davis Rummy Q Club.

She is preceded in death by her husband of 57 years, Frank; her brother, Nobe Inouye; and her sisters-in-law, Kiko and Chiyo Inouye. She is survived by her brothers, Tom (Shirley) Inouye and Hiro Inouye; her sisters, Chiyoko Hirata and Mitzi (Howard) Yamamoto; her three children Pam Ogasawara (Mike Corson), Patty Sanui and Paul Ogasawara (Christie Guth); her five grandchildren, Mark (Doris) Sanui, Katie Sanui and Greg, Tommy and Hannah Ogasawara; and many nieces, nephews and grandnephews.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Ogasawara Family Endowment for the Raptor Center and sent to the School of Veterinary Medicine, Attention Ms. Celeste Borelli, P.O. Box 1167, Davis, CA 95617.

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