Masami Hirata

MASAMI HIRATA Masami Hirata, wife of the late Minoru Hirata of Sanger, died after a long illness on Monday, July 3, 2006, at the home of her daughter in Oklahoma. She was also preceded in death by her daughter, Kazuye Marie. Mrs. Hirata was born in Long Beach, California, on June 27, 1916, and educated in Japan. She returned to the Sacramento area in her teens and lived there until her marriage and subsequent internment at relocation camps in Poston, Arizona, and Tule Lake, California, during WWII. After the war, she and her family moved to the Fresno area. After her husband's death in 1996, she moved to Oklahoma to live with her daughter. Her family and friends will all miss her irreverent sense of humor, her cooking, her generosity, and her extraordinary forgiveness. She is survived two daughters, Vivian Jacob of Marlow, Oklahoma, and Sachiye Hirata of Kensington, California; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service will be held at the Wallin Funeral Home in Sanger on Saturday, August 26, 2006, at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of koden, the family requests donations be made to the Alzheimer's Association (www.alznorcal.org). WALLIN FUNERAL HOMESSanger, CA 875-6555