Amy Emiko Tanoue

Amy Emiko Tanoue, was born to Tokio & Chitome Takenaka on October 24, 1931. She was 2 nd of three children, an older brother George and younger brother Arnold. Amy grew up in Honolulu and graduated from Mckinly High School, class of 1949. She met her husband Harry during a summer job at the Cannery, they wed in August of 1954 and later had five children, Jill, JoAnn, Rodney, Russell and Ricky.

Amy was employed with the State of Hi, Dept of Transportation’s Highways division, then at the Harbors division where she retired after 25+ years of service.

After she rec’d Jesus as her Savior, she became a member of First Assembly of God church, with her husband Harry, and volunteered in many different events by supporting Harry with his costume & makeup when he performed in the Choir’s Christmas productions, as well as contributing her cooked meals during their rehearsals.

Amy was a hard worker, the family cook, planner and organizer and planned all the family trips. She would type out detailed itineraries that she’d give to each of her children. And because it was a financial challenge with a family of 7, to help with travel costs, she would find part-time work, working at jewelry stores after her day job. She was quite an entrepreneur as well, selling a variety of items: doing consignment for fashion and jade jewelry, toys, stuffed animals, Japanese slippers and mats. When the puka and paper shells became a craze, she (and Harry) would take the kids to Maile beach to gather as many shells as they could, bring them home to make necklaces to sell at the swap meet. It was quite profitable and helped tremendously with the travel expenses.

She was an avid writer, and in high school, involved herself as a home room chairman and secretary for various school projects. She also took Japanese language classes and even produced her own record of a song she sang in Japanese.

Some of her favorite pastimes were reading the Bible, newspaper, doing crossword puzzles, some knitting and crocheting, exercising, watching football with her family, (was a big fan of Tom Brady). She also liked to play games and was quite a competitor. Her favorite was Chinese checkers and soon became the family’s ‘Chinese Checkers Champion’.

Amy enjoyed spending time with her family and grandchildren, Jeremy and Zachary, picking them up from school, going for a swim at the beach, taking them to the park and to sports activities.

She was a ‘prayer warrior’ spending time daily, praying for her family. She was a good listener and would also pray for her friends and neighbors, whenever they had needs or concerns.

Amy was a great role model for her family, and constantly displayed the ‘fruits of the spirit’, was soft spoken yet had a tough inner strength, was compassionate, kind, gentle, so patient, a peacemaker, full of God’s wisdom, love and joy for her family. Even in her later years with dementia and her physical strength declined, she had a sweet spirit, and would show her appreciation by touching our hand or shoulder to say ‘thank you’.

We will miss her dearly; Amy will always be in our hearts