Takekuma Norman Takei was born in Yamanashi prefecture in central Japan in 1902. He lost his mother early in his childhood and was brought to San Francisco, California, by his widower father, Yataro Takei, when he was 12. He loved baseball and as a teenager, traveled the Bay Area with the Japantown Seals baseball team. He finished high school and graduated from Hills Business College. He loved San Francisco but it was to the booming southern California city of Los Angeles that he came to start a successful dry cleaning business in the Wilshire district near the fashionable Bullocks Wilshire department store.
In 1935, he met and married Fumiko Emily Nakamura from Florin, California. Three children quickly followed; two boys and a girl. An Anglophile, Takekuma named the two boys after English kings; the first son, George, for King George VI because the baby was born in 1937, the year of the Royal coronation. The second boy, a big, chubby infant as fat as the rotund King Henry VIII, was named Henry, of course. The third child and only girl, he and Fumiko named Nancy Reiko for a friend they admired.
Working long, tiring hours, they carefully built up a small savings. The children were growing and they were concerned about their future. They wanted their children to have better education in a better neighborhood. Good schooling, they firmly believed, was essential for them. In 1950, just four years after returning from the camps, they were able to buy a three bedroom house back in their old mid-Wilshire neighborhood. Takekuma sold the dry cleaning shop and bought a grocery store on Western Avenue in south Los Angeles. A few years later, he sold the grocery and went into real estate where he found his success.
In his retirement, Takekuma again contributed to the Japanese American community serving on the Board of Directors of the Little Tokyo Towers, a low income residence for seniors, and was one of the founders and a Board member of the Pioneer Center, a senior social service center. In the arena of politics, he hosted in his home a fund-raiser for Councilman Tom Bradleys campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. But his happiest political experience was working as a volunteer in his son Georges campaign headquarters when George unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
Takekuma and Fumiko enjoyed travel and were particularly venturesome. They loved exploring exotic places the Soviet Union, Kenya and Tanzania, Iran, India, the South Pacific, and more popular tourist destinations such as London, Paris, Venice, Australia and New Zealand, and, of course, Japan and all over the U.S. After a long illness, Takekuma passed at age 76 on September 22, 1979, of an illness he contracted on one of his exotic travels.
In 1935, he met and married Fumiko Emily Nakamura from Florin, California. Three children quickly followed; two boys and a girl. An Anglophile, Takekuma named the two boys after English kings; the first son, George, for King George VI because the baby was born in 1937, the year of the Royal coronation. The second boy, a big, chubby infant as fat as the rotund King Henry VIII, was named Henry, of course. The third child and only girl, he and Fumiko named Nancy Reiko for a friend they admired.
Working long, tiring hours, they carefully built up a small savings. The children were growing and they were concerned about their future. They wanted their children to have better education in a better neighborhood. Good schooling, they firmly believed, was essential for them. In 1950, just four years after returning from the camps, they were able to buy a three bedroom house back in their old mid-Wilshire neighborhood. Takekuma sold the dry cleaning shop and bought a grocery store on Western Avenue in south Los Angeles. A few years later, he sold the grocery and went into real estate where he found his success.
In his retirement, Takekuma again contributed to the Japanese American community serving on the Board of Directors of the Little Tokyo Towers, a low income residence for seniors, and was one of the founders and a Board member of the Pioneer Center, a senior social service center. In the arena of politics, he hosted in his home a fund-raiser for Councilman Tom Bradleys campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. But his happiest political experience was working as a volunteer in his son Georges campaign headquarters when George unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
Takekuma and Fumiko enjoyed travel and were particularly venturesome. They loved exploring exotic places the Soviet Union, Kenya and Tanzania, Iran, India, the South Pacific, and more popular tourist destinations such as London, Paris, Venice, Australia and New Zealand, and, of course, Japan and all over the U.S. After a long illness, Takekuma passed at age 76 on September 22, 1979, of an illness he contracted on one of his exotic travels.
Takekuma Norman Takei was born in Yamanashi prefecture in central Japan in 1902. He lost his mother early in his childhood and was brought to San Francisco, California, by his widower father, Yataro Takei, when he was 12. He loved baseball and as a teenager, traveled the Bay Area with the Japantown Seals baseball team. He finished high school and graduated from Hills Business College. He loved San Francisco but it was to the booming southern California city of Los Angeles that he came to start a successful dry cleaning business in the Wilshire district near the fashionable Bullocks Wilshire department store.
In 1935, he met and married Fumiko Emily Nakamura from Florin, California. Three children quickly followed; two boys and a girl. An Anglophile, Takekuma named the two boys after English kings; the first son, George, for King George VI because the baby was born in 1937, the year of the Royal coronation. The second boy, a big, chubby infant as fat as the rotund King Henry VIII, was named Henry, of course. The third child and only girl, he and Fumiko named Nancy Reiko for a friend they admired.
Working long, tiring hours, they carefully built up a small savings. The children were growing and they were concerned about their future. They wanted their children to have better education in a better neighborhood. Good schooling, they firmly believed, was essential for them. In 1950, just four years after returning from the camps, they were able to buy a three bedroom house back in their old mid-Wilshire neighborhood. Takekuma sold the dry cleaning shop and bought a grocery store on Western Avenue in south Los Angeles. A few years later, he sold the grocery and went into real estate where he found his success.
In his retirement, Takekuma again contributed to the Japanese American community serving on the Board of Directors of the Little Tokyo Towers, a low income residence for seniors, and was one of the founders and a Board member of the Pioneer Center, a senior social service center. In the arena of politics, he hosted in his home a fund-raiser for Councilman Tom Bradleys campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. But his happiest political experience was working as a volunteer in his son Georges campaign headquarters when George unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
Takekuma and Fumiko enjoyed travel and were particularly venturesome. They loved exploring exotic places the Soviet Union, Kenya and Tanzania, Iran, India, the South Pacific, and more popular tourist destinations such as London, Paris, Venice, Australia and New Zealand, and, of course, Japan and all over the U.S. After a long illness, Takekuma passed at age 76 on September 22, 1979, of an illness he contracted on one of his exotic travels.
In 1935, he met and married Fumiko Emily Nakamura from Florin, California. Three children quickly followed; two boys and a girl. An Anglophile, Takekuma named the two boys after English kings; the first son, George, for King George VI because the baby was born in 1937, the year of the Royal coronation. The second boy, a big, chubby infant as fat as the rotund King Henry VIII, was named Henry, of course. The third child and only girl, he and Fumiko named Nancy Reiko for a friend they admired.
Working long, tiring hours, they carefully built up a small savings. The children were growing and they were concerned about their future. They wanted their children to have better education in a better neighborhood. Good schooling, they firmly believed, was essential for them. In 1950, just four years after returning from the camps, they were able to buy a three bedroom house back in their old mid-Wilshire neighborhood. Takekuma sold the dry cleaning shop and bought a grocery store on Western Avenue in south Los Angeles. A few years later, he sold the grocery and went into real estate where he found his success.
In his retirement, Takekuma again contributed to the Japanese American community serving on the Board of Directors of the Little Tokyo Towers, a low income residence for seniors, and was one of the founders and a Board member of the Pioneer Center, a senior social service center. In the arena of politics, he hosted in his home a fund-raiser for Councilman Tom Bradleys campaign for Mayor of Los Angeles. But his happiest political experience was working as a volunteer in his son Georges campaign headquarters when George unsuccessfully ran for a seat on the Los Angeles City Council.
Takekuma and Fumiko enjoyed travel and were particularly venturesome. They loved exploring exotic places the Soviet Union, Kenya and Tanzania, Iran, India, the South Pacific, and more popular tourist destinations such as London, Paris, Venice, Australia and New Zealand, and, of course, Japan and all over the U.S. After a long illness, Takekuma passed at age 76 on September 22, 1979, of an illness he contracted on one of his exotic travels.
Bio by: Ridged Rancher
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