Kaneko "Connie" Yanagi Moriwaki

Born on March 1, 1928 in Kyoto, Japan, Kaneko died on October 17, 2013 at her home in Moses Lake after a courageous fight with pancreatic cancer.

Kaneko was the second of six children born to Naotaka and Masako Yanagi. A gifted student who won awards for her delicate drawing and excellent calligraphy, Kaneko also enjoyed sports and was an all-star athlete, playing as the starting guard on several prefecture (state) championship basketball teams.

An excellent scholar, prior to her senior year at Nijo High School, academic officials noted Kaneko's standout grades and aptitude for science, and she was selected as one of only two girls from her school invited to apply to the prestigious Kyoto Imperial University Medical School. Kaneko was not only admitted, but she won a rare full-ride academic scholarship. Kaneko focused on the emerging science of bacteriology, eventually becoming a valued researcher for the university's laboratory, working on developing cultures to enhance the study of tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid and other diseases.

In 1947, Kaneko met her future husband, U.S. Army Sergeant Nobuo Moriwaki of Moses Lake, who was serving the Military Intelligence Service stationed at the U.S. Army General Headquarters during the post-war occupation of Japan. After a brief courtship, they were married in Kyoto.

Upon leaving Japan, Kaneko moved to Seattle to stay with Nobuo's relatives while he completed his post-war service at Ft. Riley, Kansas. In 1949 they were reunited when Nobuo completed his tour of duty and returned to Moses Lake.

Caring, kind and gracious, Kaneko was a hard-working farmer's wife who was warm and generous to all, as well as a sensational hostess and cook who made her house a welcoming home for people from around the world, including hosting some unforgettable New Years' Day parties.

Kaneko loved nature, hiking, traveling, yard work, gardening (especially tending to her precious vine-ripened tomatoes), classical music, Days of our Lives, 60 Minutes, Mariners baseball, Tiger Woods and all of her dear friends, but most of all her greatest love was putting the needs and dreams of her family first.

Kaneko dearly loved her children and played an active and influential role nurturing their childhoods, becoming a respected Girl Scout Leader, Cub Scout Den Mother and supporting and attending school concerts, dance recitals, plays and other events too numerous to mention. Kaneko was also an accomplished seamstress who made beautifully tailored clothes for all of her family, even teaching herself how to re-upholster furniture.

Kaneko's roots to Japan proved to be both deep and valuable for the greater Moses Lake community. When the Japanese Agricultural Trainee Program began at Big Bend Community College and her husband Nobuo later became a lead interpreter and mentor for the hundreds of young men learning American-style farming techniques, from day one Kaneko became their unofficial goodwill ambassador and motherly advisor, opening her doors as home away from home, hosting sumptuous, home-cooked traditional meals and informal parties for the Japanese trainees.

Kaneko's Japanese roots also sprouted lasting relationships with Japan Air Lines, when she started JAL's Japanese Supplemental School, a special after-school program teaching Japanese language and culture for the children of JAL employees in Moses Lake. Kaneko's decades of teaching - most often having to develop the curriculum from scratch - earned her a special high award from the Emperor of Japan, presented at ceremony held at the Consul General of Japan's private Seattle mansion.

When her husband suffered repeated strokes, Kaneko dedicated her life to lovingly care for Nobuo, and when he could no longer be supported at home, she visited him every day at his extended care facility - and almost as frequently - personally took Nobuo's laundry home until the day of his death on Dec. 26, 2006.

Kaneko Yanagi Moriwaki is survived by sister Noriko Yanagi Yasuda, Osaka, Japan; brother Yoshiro Yanagi, Hyogo, Japan; son Arthur, Moses Lake; daughter Ruby Webster, Coon Rapids, Minnesota; son Clarence, Bainbridge Island; daughter Pearl Young, Stafford, Virginia; grandson James Goehring, Burnsville, Minnesota; granddaughter Theresa Young, Boston, Massachusetts; and Christina Young, Stafford, Virginia.

An informal, come-as-you-are celebration of Kaneko's life will be hosted by her children on Friday, October 25, from 1 - 4 PM at the Moriwaki home, 514 South Schneirla Avenue, Moses Lake.