<Begin Segment 19>

TI: Okay, so to pick it up again, in the late 1990s, your husband died. I think, was it like a heart attack or something like that, heart problems?

SI: I'm trying to think. I think he... he had heart problems, and I don't know whether he was at the hospital when he died.

TI: But was it a fairly sudden thing that happened, or was it kind of a longer...

SI: Well, he had a heart condition before. I don't know when it started, but I remember, I think we were at the hospital, and I think we must have stayed. I remember everybody was there before he died, but I think we took him to the hospital. And then I know Grandma and everybody came to visit him, because we told them, "I think you'd better come, because it's not going to be too long before he goes." So I think they were there.

TI: So this was Ken's mother, she was living in Los Angeles or something?

SI: Yeah, something like that, or Seattle. I don't remember whether she was in L.A. or Seattle.

TI: And so when that happened, that was, must have been very difficult for the family, because he was such a, had headed up the farm for so long.

SI: Would my kids have been at the farm then? I'm sure they were working. So I think because they were there, I think everything was still, they had everything under control.

TI: Yes. So by then, you had formed the corporation, both Lon and Wayne and Norm were working.

SI: I think that's why everything was okay. They knew how to run the farm.

TI: Back when your husband was alive, who was the one who worked most closely with, like, the tribes, to work on getting more leased land and things like that? Was that your husband or was that others, someone else?

SI: Well, I don't think we, around that time, we didn't add more leases to the land because we had enough. Fifteen hundred acres was too much anyway. So I don't think we could have advanced anymore, so I don't think we were worried about it.

TI: Were there any changes to the business? I mean, it sounds like, maybe in particular, your boys took on more responsibility?

SI: Oh, I'm sure they took over. Like the corporations should keep on going. They do their share and they know what's going on, so they knew how to continue, because college students, they'd graduated, so they know what they're doing.

<End Segment 19> - Copyright © 2023 Densho. All Rights Reserved.