Christine Joy Yada

Christine Joy Yada was born April 7, 1949 in Seattle, Washington to Roy and Mariko Tanagi, with Herb and Fumi Iseri as her godparents. She was baptized April 9, 1950 by Rev Paul Hagiya at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church in Seattle, WA. The eldest of three sisters, she attended Brighton Elementary, Sharples Jr HS (now Aki Kurose), and graduated from Franklin HS in 1967.

Chris spent much of her childhood living on S. Willow St. in the Brighton neighborhood, playing games like “kick the can” and putting on shows with a tight knit group of kids. Like her sisters, she grew up taking piano and dance lessons and participating in Brownies/ Girl Scouts. Summers and weekends involved camping and other car trips to visit friends and family all along the West Coast. She also fondly remembered spending time working at the family farm in Wapato, WA with Uncle Herbie and Auntie Fumi folding boxes and packing tomatoes and corn. Chris’ mother Markie ensured that the kids attended Sunday school every week at Blaine and some of her fondest memories were from the annual Winter Youth Conferences, alternating locations each year with sister Japanese American UM churches in Portland, Spokane, Denver, and Ontario, OR. Her lasting warm memories eventually lead to convincing her son Jason to get involved with the JA UMCs, which would forever shape his life.

In 1966 the Tanagis had a new house built just a few blocks away on S. Eddy St. That home has remained in the family, enduring as a center-point of community gatherings throughout the years. Julie (Chris’ youngest sister by several years) warmly remembers when Chris would allow her to play pool in the basement of that house with the “big kids” while they hung out and listened to music.

Chris attended Western Washington University for one year (later inspiring both of her children Jason and Shelley to get their undergrad degrees from there) and then moved back home to finish her bachelors in Sociology at the University of Washington, graduating in 1971. Go Dawgs! During her college years (we think), Chris worked for Murata Pearls in the upper shopping level of the Seattle Center House (now known as the Seattle Center Armory). One of the kids’ last memories of Chris is her reminding them how to properly identify real life pearls! After graduating college, Chris landed a job at a law firm in downtown and began a career as a paralegal. Unfortunately, none of us can remember the name of the law firm. Anybody?

Jeff and Chris were married for nearly 49 years, but knew each other for over 70! This is due in part to the closeness of the Japanese American community in Seattle in the 1950’s and their concurrent tending to in the nursery at Japanese Baptist Church. Being the same age, they would bump into each other throughout their childhood in Sunday school at Blaine Memorial UMC and at Nisei Veterans Committee events, parties, and fundraisers. Both Jeff and Chris’ fathers were WWII veterans and well involved in the NVC community. Jeff’s recollection of their earliest dating years are hazy, but he thinks they started dating around 1970 (which corroborates with his first appearances in her photo albums). It seems they hung out with friends a lot (checks out), hung out with family a lot (checks out), went on hikes (uh, what?), dressed up in costumes for Halloween (uh, what?) and loved playing with the Tanagi’s pets (oh ya, super checks out.) On April 7th (yes, Chris’ birthday), 1973, they became engaged and were married one year later on April 20th, 1974.

Jeff and Chris were married at Blaine Memorial UMC and the reception was at the now gone Polynesia Restaurant, which was down on the Seattle Waterfront at the end of Pier 51 (currently the site of the Bremerton-Seattle ferry dock.) (Do a search for images of the Polynesia Restaurant – it looked amazing!) Chris’ maid of honor was Paula (Minato) Sugiyama and Jeff’s best man was Barry Uchida. For their honeymoon, “The Yadas” flew down to Disneyland (and stayed at the Disneyland Hotel) and then flew to Las Vegas (and stayed at Caesars Palace). The newlyweds had so much fun that they lost all their money and had to come home a day early and in doing so, ruined Jeff’s sister Gail’s surprise welcome home party! Their lack of gambling success would not deter them from returning many times, to the point that they would eventually buy a time share on the Strip!

The Yadas first home was a 1928 Tudor-Style house on the corner of 28th Ave S. and Ferdinand St. on Beacon Hill, three houses down from Jeff’s parents. In 1976, the United Parcel Service presented Jeff with a career opportunity that would take him and Chris across the state to Spokane, WA. They moved into a newly built house on Morrill St on the south hill. At the time, she was pregnant with her first-born and decided that her new career would be as a housewife and mother (she hated being called a homemaker). Moving away from family was no doubt difficult, but was bearable due to having Jeff’s Uncle Ed and Auntie Hide Tsutakawa living just a few miles away. The family would spend many Easters, Thanksgivings, Christmases, and New Years Days at their home for dinners and company. Chris would eventually be a key part in helping Uncle Ed plan and host the first Tsutakawa family Reunion (drawing international participation.)

Chris and Jeff also found great joy in living amongst like-minded/ like-situated families with young careers and young children. The Morrill St families (Nuxolls, Gills, Lalickers, Ericksons, Donahues, Olsons, Andersons, Westfahls, Foxes) formed an amazing bond wherein all of the mothers and fathers were moms and dads to all of the kids – Chris loved being able to send her kids out knowing they’d be safe up and down the block. Whether it was the 4th of July BBQ and fireworks, or the progressive dinners, or the holiday cookie exchanges, or the Christmas lighting with the huge stars, or the hilarious practical jokes, or drinking lemonade by the Anderson’s pool with the other moms, Chris truly enjoyed her life on Morrill St.

Jason was born in 1976 and Shelley in 1980. Chris embraced and enjoyed the housewife life and was fully engaged in her kids’ activities, including being a supportive sports mom (gymnastics and volleyball indoors, but soccer and baseball in the rain), band mom (musicals and jazz concerts indoors, but parades and marching band competitions in the rain), and Scouts mom (crafts and games indoors, but real-life camping under the sun!) As the Troop Leader for Shelley’s Girl Scout Troop for 10 years, Chris was a mentor for dozens of scouts and was especially adamant about not just doing crafty activities, but also going camping and learning applicable skills, such as tying knots, building fires, and pitching tents. Shelley also remembers Chris insisting that the scouts know how to plan events, including their own troop meetings. And of course, the cookies. Boxes and boxes of cookies!

Chris’ love for camping was born from her childhood experiences, but reinforced in her life with Jeff. She loved to retell the stories of taking 6 month old Jason camping on the weekends, sleeping in the Tanagi family tent and heating up bottles over the campfire. The Yadas went camping weekend after weekend, month after month, year after year, usually taking the ski boat out to Lake Roosevelt (Seven Bays, Fort Spokane, Porcupine Bay), the St Joe River, and Lake Coeur d’Alene.

As a PTA (schools) and band mom, Chris utilized her impressive organizational skills as a fundraising leader and coordinator. She would often come to schools during the day and became well known to all of the students – she would worry about embarrassing Jason and Shelley, but in reality, they actually loved that their friends all knew and liked her and her big smile. Because of the confidence she instilled in her children, Jason and Shelley grew up proud of their Japanese American heritage, showing off his Boy’s Day giant koi windsocks and her Girl’s Day Japanese doll display.

Though the kids never knew it, Jeff and Chris started out in Spokane on a tight budget. Chris made it work throughout the years by planning breakfast, lunch, and dinner for an entire month at a time and then using her couponing and shopping skills at the grocery store (pre-Costco!). She became legendary at the store for using two carts at a time, sorting perishables vs non-perishables, and using her lengthy shopping lists and self-drawn store maps for maximum efficiency (no wandering around the store).

One story she loved to recount was her agreement with Jeff that, no matter how bad finances ever got, they would never skimp on the quality of the food, incl name brand foods (when it mattered). Her mandate for quality transferred over to her cooking, which became well known amongst all her social circles. Probably most well-known was her Chinese chicken salad, teriyaki chicken wings, and 7-layered jello. She was known to host cooking lessons for the neighbors and host small dinners for Jeff’s young UPS co-workers looking for home-cooked meals. She loved using old family recipes, but also trying new things out of cooking magazines, church cookbooks, and any cookbook that had nice pictures! Annual cookie exchange festivities with the neighbors would follow her back to Seattle, in the form of annual family baking marathon’s (mostly Shelley) which resulted in dozens of Christmas cookie plates for family and friends.

Moving to Spokane ended up being a great move not only for Jeff’s career, but also for the relationships the Yadas found in his coworkers. It was great fortune that Tom Nuxoll (& Aileen- who did mom’s hair), Craig Walker (& Kathy), and Jerry McDonald (& Philene) ended up being coworkers who were also neighbors. Those families, along with Tim and Mary Jo Jones, Dan and Janice Dejanovich were among their closest friends. Mom also found many good times with her bowling buddies as well as Naomi Ishiguro, for whom she was always grateful for her sewing skills (the kids still have the their graduation blankets!)

When the kids left the house for college and careers, Chris was suddenly left with lots of free time, which she largely filled with scrapbooking (like, hardcore Creative Memories – style scrapbooking), watching home design and cooking tv shows (Fixer Upper and Magnolia Table were recent favorites), and reading (anybody want a Lilian Jackson Braun (The Cat Who…) book? How about a dozen? Or more?). Shelley checked her Kindle and saw that she had read over ~1850 books in the last 10 years, probably some of them multiple times. The local libraries in Spokane were among her favorite places to visit.

With the kids relocating to the west side of the state after college, the Yadas moved back to the Seattle area in 2005 to be close to family, enjoying the proximity to loved ones and hating the traffic and cloudy days (the winter they moved back, there was a weather record for number of consecutive cloudy days.) Returning to Seattle primed Jeff and Chris for reconnecting with old friends Arnie and Ardath Woo (with whom they’d go on cruising trips in their Corvettes) and Barry and Jody Uchida. By amazing happenstance, they also realized that their house in Federal Way was just minutes away from old card playing friends the McDonalds. Proximity and many, many laughs would lead to many, many dinners and even a few trips together to Whistler, Vegas, and Hawaii. Chris loved Hawaii in particular not only for the food and weather, but for the pace of life and general “aloha” she experienced there. Her favorite activity while traveling anywhere was shopping for “omiyage”- gifts to bring back home for family and friends.

Being back near Seattle also allowed Chris to get to some Mariner games with the family, including getting to see celebrations for Ichiro, Junior, Felix, and Edgar, though her favorite player was Dan Wilson. Having grown up in a sports-loving family, she along with her sisters, were/are fans of all of the Seattle local teams and did/do just fine understanding rules and strategy, thank you very much! And having lived in Spokane for so long, Chris was of course a yearly fan of Zags basketball (“Make your free throws!”) She enjoyed watching Seattle teams, but would (especially while getting her dialysis) watch any college sports that happened be on tv.

Having started dialysis in 2019 (NW Kidney Center East - thank you for your excellent care over the last four years), Chris was suddenly left with hours of sitting time and used that opportunity to reconnect with her lifelong pen pal Cindi Hitt. They first met at swimming lessons in 5th grade on Mercer Island, but kept in touch, attending each other’s weddings in Seattle and later writing journal-style letters when Cindi moved to Minnesota. They switched to text messaging when Chris’ dialysis started, reopening a deep connection of conversation and revelation that she no doubt cherished.

Chris really loved her families – the Tanagis and Onos, the Yadas (and Fukais) and Tsutakawas. In her most recent days she was looking forward to organizing a Tanagi reunion, attending the next Tsutakawa reunion, and finally traveling back to Oregon to see more family there. Though sometimes chaotic, she was also really looking forward to spending more time (post-COVID) with the Lock’s and Lim’s.

As mentioned before, Chris was a very social lady and managed to have great relationships even with her masseuse Jackie Marie James, LLT (Massage for Health and Day Spa), her hair stylist Susan Uyeji (Reign in the Park Salon), and her “nail lady” Tammy Pham (Nails Art by Tammy @ Salon Christine). Her nails were, in particular, often complimented for their intricate designs and often seasonal cheer.

In the most recent years Chris persevered through various health issues, but in the end it was a fall from her beloved hot tub that caused unrecoverable complications. She passed on March 10th, 2023. Graveside burial was held March 21 @ Evergreen-Washelli Memorial Park.

Chris is survived by husband Jeff, children Jason and Shelley, sister Julie Tanagi Lock (David), sister-in-law Gail Yada Hikida, as well as many loving nieces, nephews, cousins and extended family. She is preceded in death by parents Roy (1977 passed away from a heart attack), Mariko (2010 lung cancer) and sister Carolyn (2011 ovarian cancer).

Memorable pets were - cats (Julie’s cat Bernie, Mochi, Zoni); dogs (Tanagi poodle Mimiko, akitas Saku, Keiko)

A memorial service will be held April 15, 3pm @ Blaine Memorial UMC (3001 – 24th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118) with reception to follow.

In lieu of flowers, please consider donating to:

Blaine Memorial UMC (checks to 3001 – 24th Ave S, Seattle, WA 98118)

Northwest Kidney Centers ( https://www.nwkidney.org/how-to-help/donate-online/ )

You are welcome to share memories and photos on the Tribute Wall, located above.

Arrangements Entrusted to Emmick Family Funeral Home - Lake View ~ Seattle, Washington