<Begin Segment 1>

TI: Okay, so Maynard, we're here, today is Thursday, November 20, 2008, and we're on the, in Sonoma, at the home of Maynard Cooke Horiuchi. And so, Maynard, I'm going to start, can you tell me where and when you were born?

MH: I was born in Vallejo, California, on August 8, 1925.

TI: So when you were born, were you born in a hospital or a midwife?

MH: I was born in a hospital.

TI: And so let me first, well, let me ask you, so what was your full name given to you at birth?

MH: My full name given to me at birth was supposed to be Mary Louise Cooke, but I looked so much like my father when I was born, that they named me Mary Maynard instead. And since my father called my mother Mary -- although normally she was known as Louise by everyone else, but he called her Mary -- they had to call me Maynard. It was too confusing to have two Marys in the household.

TI: So Maynard, for a woman, is that an unusual name?

MH: Yes.

TI: Did you ever find other women named Maynard?

MH: Indeed, it's very unusual. I was actually, when I was in high school, was assigned to the boys' gyms until they looked at me, and that was that. [Laughs]

TI: That's, that a good story. So let's talk a little bit about your father and your father's side. Can you tell me when your father's side came to the United States, the family?

MH: They came, at least the most ancestral one came on the Mayflower, and his name was William White.

TI: And do you have any sense of how many generations back that was?

MH: Oh, goodness, I'm sorry.

TI: So this would be back in the...

MH: 1620s.

TI: 1620s, so that's... so you can trace your roots all the way back to the Mayflower.

MH: Yes. On that, on that particular line, yes. And also back to an Irish immigrant to the U.S., or what was the U.S., to America at that time, who was, "took the king's shilling," which meant he joined the British army, because he "loved above his station," which means he loved a girl who was socially quite a bit higher than he was. And he, he later started, after serving there in the New York area, he started a community there which was a more liberal community than the Dutch particularly liked. So they really tried to pressure him quite a bit in that community.

TI: And where was this community located?

MH: It was in New York state somewhere. I have the written records about where it was.

TI: And do you know about what time, what year this would be?

MH: Well, this was before the American Revolution, but not too long before. And he, actually, he married the daughter of one of the Dutch settlers in New York City, who was a Bleecker, and Bleecker Street in New York was named after that family.

TI: So I'm curious, was this the same woman that he was in love with when he decided to join?

MH: No, no.

TI: So this was someone else.

MH: That was an Irish lass.

TI: Okay, that's good.

<End Segment 1> - Copyright © 2008 Densho. All Rights Reserved.