Kiyoko Tsubota passed peacefully in Honolulu on August 7, 2022 with her loved ones by her side. She spent the past year in the devoted care of the amazing staff at Manoa Senior Care. She was a gentle, gracious and creative soul who loved to travel with family to Sri Lanka, India, New Zealand, Canada, Korea and Japan. Her creativity showed in her passion for sewing and designing clothes and continued later in life with handicrafts and painting. Kiyoko also loved sports, especially baseball and football. Family and friends remember her as always smiling. Kiyoko was predeceased by husband, Teruto, after 67 years of marriage. She left behind her children: daughter Renee Horie (Wil) of Kaneohe, and sons Guy Tsubota (Diane) of Kilauea, Kauai and Sid Tsubota (Karen) of Alamo, California, 6 grandchildren, four great-grand- children, and numerous nieces and nephews.Born in Okinawa on December 20, 1925, she married U.S. Military Intelligence interpreter Teruto Tsubota in 1947 whom she met while in the POW camp during the Okinawa campaign, WW2. They moved to Pahoa, Big Island to start a family and later returned to Okinawa in 1953 where Terry worked on the island's reconstruction and later for the Defense Department. She and her husband moved back to Hawaii in 2012, spending time with their children on Kauai, in Kaneohe and California.
Her ashes will be interred next to her husband in the East Hawaii Veterans Cemetery in Hilo. A private service with close family will be held on February 3, 2023.
Arrangements Provided By:
Grace Mortuary Services, L.L.C.
