LWer celebrates 100-year mark

GAF

Leona (Jeo) Hasegawa was born Feb. 19, 1924, in Rexburg Idaho. Her parents, Tome Jeo and Yoshiko Baba, immigrated to the U.S. to raise a family. She was the second of 12 children, two of which died in infancy.

Hasegawa grew up helping work the family farm, raising primarily potatoes and sugar beets with her brothers and sisters Tom, Junior, Calvin, Herbert, Lucy, Frank, Jack and Eleanor. Out of her 10 siblings, she is currently the only surviving child.

Hasegawa attended elementary school in Rexburg, Idaho, in the Burton Ward in a two-room schoolhouse that housed grades first through eighth and later attended Madison High School.

While in high school, Hasegawa went to live with the Matson family who were neighbors and needed live-in help. She was cared for, fed and learned some of the more graceful ways of living. She learned how to set the table for formal dinner parties, how to polish silverware as well as prepare fancy foods. She later went to work for another family as a nanny while looking for a nursing school that would accept her during WWII. The Matsons were instrumental in advocating for Hasegawa to attend nursing school through the cadet core program as the school fees, uniforms and living expenses were paid for. She received training from the Latter Day Saints Hospital in Salt Lake City and became a registered nurse.

She married Tak Hasegawa in 1949, and they relocated to Los Angeles in 1952, where they had two children, Ellen and William.

Hasegawa worked for a hospital in Culver City. Later as a single parent, she was able to provide for and educate her children by working for an orthopedic hospital for 26 years. She retired in 1989 and relocated to Leisure World in Seal Beach.

Being the second oldest girl, she was often in charge of babysitting her younger brothers and sisters and would often exclaim she was not going to babysit her grandchildren. That of course

Leona Hasegawa changed when her grandson, Nathan Ing was born. For a number of years, Hasegawa would drive from Leisure World to Torrance to babysit Nathan a couple days a week.

Hasegawa continues to enjoy her life upon her retirement. She has taken trips and cruises to various countries including Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Japan.

While her traveling days are over, she continues to enjoy friendships and activities at Leisure World including hula, clogging, chair exercise, the Japanese American Club and the Sunshine Club.

On many days, people will find her walking around Leisure World for exercise, greeting her many good friends with a smile on her face.

–Ellen Ing, daughter