<Begin Segment 14>

LT: And then in 1961, Tommy died.

JH: Uh-huh.

LT: And your children were young. Raymond was ten and Betty Jean was eight. That had to have been such a difficult time for you and your young family.

JH: Yeah, it was. Of course, I was living with Tommy's parents, so they kind of took care of the kids, and I was still, I kept on working.

LT: So you were a working single mother.

JH: Uh-huh. And then I don't know what year it was, but then I don't remember who mentioned it, but they thought I should probably move in with the two kids in another home. And so we rented a house just right next to the store, in back of where I was living, and we stayed there for I don't know how long. Gee, I don't remember. Maybe 'til I got married, then we bought a house on Albina Street. Then after that, we moved out to Northeast Portland where we had a home built, where we're living now.

LT: Okay. Well, and your second husband actually had a relationship with Tommy and with the store.

JH: Yes, they were very close. Yes, they were very close.

LT: Can you talk about that?

JH: In fact, they had, like season hockey tickets together. So the kids knew of him real, the kids knew him very well, and his folks were, they felt sorry for the two kids coming to the store after school, and he would take 'em home. After Tommy had died, he'd take him home, and they would have dinner there. And, of course, I would go over there, too, after I got off work. That's how... it's somebody that the kids knew, and they knew his folks, too. 'Cause he stayed with his, he kind of looked after his folks.

LT: And so Tom, the son, and friend of Tommy, had a father who was also a food broker who came to your store.

JH: Uh-huh.

LT: So you all had a lot of connections as friends and businesspeople, too. Okay. So you married Tom Harry. What year was that?

JH: '63.

LT: '63, 1963. And you said that Tom promised Tommy that...

JH: If anything happens, because he was weak, he was sick. He knew that he had kidney failure, so I guess evidently he knew that he wouldn't be around forever. So that's how he... then, "When I go, kind of look after my kids for me."

LT: And so Tom promised that they would get an education.

JH: Uh-huh.

LT: I have to ask you one question. While marrying outside Japanese Americans is fairly common now...

JH: Now, it wasn't then.

LT: It wasn't at that time. Was it difficult to be a Nisei marrying a hakujin, a Caucasian, at that time?

JH: Well, I don't think so, for me, because we did more with the hakujins than we did with the Japanese, being in the type of business we were in. We'd go out with these hakujin friends of ours for dinner or bowling or whatever. So we weren't around... of course, especially me, but Tommy would go bowling with Nisei League bowling, but that's the only thing he did as a Nisei. The rest of things we would have, get together with his hakujin friends of ours, close friends of ours.

LT: So were people okay with...

JH: Yeah, they didn't seem to say much.

LT: Okay, were there some who did?

JH: I don't remember.

LT: Okay. So it seems like you stepped out and did things on your own from school to going to New York to getting married. So in many ways you were a trailblazer.

JH: [Laughs] Yes, we had Trailblazer tickets.

LT: Oh, okay, well, that, too. That makes a lot of sense. So right now, what kind of hobbies do you enjoy?

JH: I don't do much... I used to do a lot of kitting, but with arthritis, I don't even do that. That was the only hobby I had, because I used to bowl, but I gave that up in 1980, and haven't touched it since.

LT: You've also done volunteer work.

JH: Yeah, well, for a while I did at Ikoi no Kai.

LT: And what is that? What were you doing?

JH: I was helping them prepare lunch food for the seniors.

LT: And now, hopefully, you get to go in and enjoy the lunch food.

JH: Yes, I do. [Laughs]

LT: That others have prepared.

<End Segment 14> - Copyright © 2014 Oregon Nikkei Endowment and Densho. All Rights Reserved.