Larry D. Sanders

1935 - 2019

Larry DuWayne Sanders, husband, father, grandfather, great-grandfather, great-great-grandfather, friend, teacher, colleague, and coach, passed away on December 10, 2019, at age 84. Born on November 26, 1935, in Grants, New Mexico, to Venwal and Laura Sanders, he grew up in poverty as his father worked laying track for the railroad and other manual labor jobs. His family eventually settled in Cave Junction, Oregon, where he spent the remainder of his youth and attended Illinois Valley High School, where he starred on a league-winning basketball team, the first in school history. Throughout his life, he was an enthusiastic alumnus of IVHS and played an important part in class reunion activities.

After graduation in 1954, he volunteered for the U.S. Army. Stationed at Camp Shinagawa in Tokyo, he played on the Army's Far East champion basketball team and made many life-long friends. He also grew to love Japan, Japanese culture and food, and the Japanese people. In particular, he fell in love with Mieko Masuda of Kyoto, who had moved to the Tokyo area while working for a U.S. Army officer's family.

After struggles with the military to approve their marriage, he and Mieko wed on February 27, 1959, in Tokyo, and then boarded the Brazil-Maru, a vessel bound for Brazil via the Pacific coast. The couple left the ship in Los Angeles and later moved to Forest Grove, Oregon, where Larry earned a bachelor's degree in history from Pacific University, the first in several generations of his family to graduate from college. He began his teaching and coaching career in Oregon and, during that time, Larry and Mieko were blessed with the birth of three sons.

In 1968, taking advantage of the much higher salaries being offered to teachers in Southern California, the family moved to the L.A. area, eventually settling in the Japanese-American enclave of Gardena. He taught U.S. History, World History, and Asian Studies, primarily at Venice High School and Bell High School, while coaching his sons in basketball and baseball.
In 1989, the family was devastated with the news that Mieko was stricken with cancer, from which she succumbed in 1991. Larry never remarried and began making an annual trip to Japan to visit friends and family and to remember the early days of his life with Mieko. In his retirement, he invited people from all over Japan to stay at his home and enjoy his California life with him. He stayed youthful and vigorous with this activity, taking them on trips across the L.A. area as well as to San Diego, San Francisco, and Oregon.
A member of Gardena Valley Baptist Church, he was a long-standing participant in the Widower's small group. Until very recently, he was a fixture at the early morning Sunday service and enjoyed watching his grandchildren participate in music at the English and Japanese language events at the church.

Predeceased by Mieko, Larry is survived by his three sons, Terry (Motoe), Gary (Yumiko), and Larry (Elizabeth); as well as his grandchildren, Naomi (Carlos) Valdivia and Michelle (Johnny) LeVasseur; Duke, Jade, and Hawk Sanders; Cole, Lauren, and Megan Sanders; and great-grandchildren, Alyssa, C.J., and Rocky Valdivia; and Rayah, Havah, J.T., and Jojo LeVasseur; and great-great-grandchild, Trinity Valdivia.

In his Bible, Larry used a bookmark with the following passage from 2 Timothy 4:7, "I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith." In his short battle with cancer, which took him while surrounded by loved ones, and through all of his days, he did, indeed, live his life that way.

His life will be celebrated at a memorial service on Sunday, December 22, at 3 p.m., at Gardena Valley Baptist Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to Gardena Valley Baptist Church.