Those We Lost in 2020
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2020 has been a year of extraordinary loss and suffering. As The Rafu
presents its annual listing of passings in the community, we offer our condolences to all those who have lost loved ones in this most difficult of years.
Following, in alphabetical order, are some of the notable individuals who passed away during the past year.
Sumako Azuma II
Sumako Azuma II (Janice Aiso Edesa), 61, on July 24. The North American representative to Azuma Ryū in Japan, she taught Japanese classical dance for 45 years, training 14 students to earn the natori degree and one to earn the shihan degree.
OBITUARY: Civil Rights Activist Georgette Imura, 77
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SACRAMENTO Georgette Imura, a long-time Sacramento activist, died on Dec. 17 after a three-year battle with non-small cell lung cancer. She was 77.
Georgette Imura
Born in the Manzanar concentration camp in 1943, she moved to Sacramento with her family when she was 4 years old and graduated from Sacramento High School.
Imura had a 28-year career with the State Legislature. She was a receptionist for Assemblymember Leroy Greene (1967-68), legislative secretary for Assemblymember Yvonne Brathwaite (1968-72), legislative assistant for Assemblymember Julian Dixon (1972-78), chief of staff for State Sen. Diane Watson (1978-81), staff director for the California State Senate Democratic Caucus (1981-85), and principal consultant for the California State Senate Elections Committee (1985-87).
Longtime Sacramento civil rights activist and Capitol staffer Georgette Imura dies at 77
Sacramento Bee 12/24/2020 Ashley Wong, The Sacramento Bee
Dec. 23 Longtime Sacramento civil rights activist and Capitol staffer Georgette Imura died from lung cancer on Dec. 17. She was 77.
Imura was born Georgette Yamamoto on October 18, 1943, in the Manzanar concentration camp at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas. She spent the first two years of her life imprisoned there before her family was eventually released. Her family settled in midtown Sacramento when she was 4.
Described as feisty, headstrong and bold her whole life, Imura entered the Capitol for the first time as a receptionist in 1967, working her way over the course of 28 years to hold numerous leadership positions in the state Legislature.