Community remembers Frank's Grocery owner

MOSES LAKE -Columbia Basin residents are remembering Frank Y. Koba. He died Thursday at Samaritan Hospital.

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Miyo, his three children, Rick (Kathy) of Moses Lake, Marsha of Soap Lake and Doug (Jeanne) of Phoenix, Ariz.; his brother Harry of Seattle and numerous nieces and nephews.

Koba's services were scheduled for today at 1 p.m.

Born Nov. 1, 1918, in Steveston, British Columbia, to Kichijiro and Fui (Hayashi) Koba, Koba lived on Bainbridge Island, where he graduated from high school in 1937.

Following internment during World War II at Manzanar, Calif., and Minidoka, Idaho, Koba moved to Moses Lake, where he and his brothers worked for the Hansen family, later farming on the Brown Ranch. Koba met his wife while working on the ranch.

Frank and Miyo bought Frank's Grocery in January 1952.

Longtime customer and friend Peny Archer didn't believe there's a student who graduated from Moses Lake High School in the last 50 years who didn't know Koba.

"Most every kid from 50 years used to go down there a lot for lunch, because basically that's the only place they had to go off of school grounds," Archer recalled. "He kind of came across as stern, with a heart as big as the outdoors."

Koba used to give speeches within the Moses Lake School District about his time in the internment camps, Archer noted.

"It was a very much Ma and Pa type of store with him and his wife, and it still is to this day," she said. "It always amazed me, these two were working seven days a week, 12-plus hour days. If they closed a little early on Christmas Day, that was amazing. But they were usually still open until at least early afternoon."

Archer remembered when she was a student who would go in to buy candy, and Koba would tease her that her quarter wasn't any good, as though it were fake.

"He did the same thing with my children and also my grandchildren," she said. "I guess it's just basically hometown hospitality and friendship. I swear Frank and his wife probably know every kid to this day by a first-name basis, know who their parents are and know where they live. You don't find that at the bigger stores. It was very much a personal, one on one … it was the neighborhood, even though it was the whole town."

Gary Hendricks lives about a block and a half from Koba's store.

"I have gone down there, my family and my children, and their children, over three generations," he said. "He's been a good friend, we got acquainted and I drank coffee down there in the mornings and we talked baseball or whatever else was current at that time."

Koba was very honest and would give his opinion without any backing away, Hendricks said.

"He was just one of the guys you felt comfortable in talking about most anything," he recalled. "We mostly talked about sports and what was going on at the high school. I know for many, many years he followed the high school athletic programs. And lots of kids have gone through his store and come back later, and maybe their kids too, like my family. My great-grandchildren are going there now."

Koba would give advice to children when they got out of line, Hendricks remembered, and tell them how they should act.

"I think he was probably a good guidance person for some of the children," Hendricks said. "They always came back with changed behavior. He just met people well. People liked Frank, for whatever reason. You know how some people have that look about them? They respected him."

Scott Grigg said he had been going to the market for more than 20 years, on a "pretty much" daily basis to stop for coffee and gossip.

"I got the pleasure to shovel their snow whenever it snowed," he said. "It kind of became a tradition, that that's what I did."

Grigg spoke of Koba's character and his wit.

"His humor, and how many kids he helped to raise, basically," he said. "He's just gone through so many generations of kids stopping there from going to the high school. He had a strong character, a good personality. He was part of our growing up childhood."

George Black recalled buying sirloin steaks from Koba at the market, and bought a newspaper from his store for about 40 years.

"He was quite an old gentleman," Black said. "He was friendly and he was excellent at what he did, which was butchering and that sort of thing."

Black said Koba was always friendly to the community, and he and his children were good to the area's youth.

"They were actually a very important part of the community," he said.

Koba also took care of a lot of "cultural things" for the Japanese community, Black added.

"Stuff I wouldn't eat for …" Black joked with a laugh. "Raw fish. I wouldn't eat that."

Former Moses Lake mayor and city council member Lee Blackwell would often go to the market because Koba carried Japanese specialty items, which Blackwell's wife used in her cooking.

"He's an icon in our community," Blackwell said.

Koba received a "prestigious" honor from the city council during Blackwell's tenure, Blackwell recalled, for his contributions to the community, taking care of business in a proper way and being a good friend to kids.

"His was a gathering place for young kids, a positive gathering place," Blackwell said. "He was a good citizen, raised a good family, contributed to the community and set standards for the community."