Comments on: Cover Girl, 60 Years Ago

By: Heather B in SC

Heather B in SC — Sat, 28 Apr 2012 21:28:35 +0000

I have a framed, embroidered quote from Sister Okazaki on my wall from a talk she gave at a women’s conference I attended years ago. I am so grateful for both her and her husband’s dedication to teaching and telling so many wonderful stories throughout all their years!

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 22:01:41 +0000

Raymond Takashi Swenson mentioned somewhere that his parents couldn’t marry in Utah because of that horrid law. And that makes me wonder about a high school friend of mine–her Japanese mother would have married her father sometime in the early 50s (I’m assuming, correctly I believe, that her parents were married when she was born!). It had never crossed my mind when I met her in the late 60s that her parents might have had difficulty getting a marriage license in Utah. Ugh!

And, I should have spent more time looking at that grainy photograph before I gave up and peeked at the answer. Bro. Okazaki looked almost exactly the same (albeit a bit stouter) when I met him in the early 70s–somewhere in Provo, well before I received my mission call to go to Japan, and if I’d looked long enough I might have recognized him.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 16:22:11 +0000

Thanks, john, I haven’t seen that yet.

By: john willis

john willis — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 15:32:09 +0000

In regards to Andrew h’s comment. I think he is refering to an incident where a Japanese friend of Sister Okazaki married a caucasian in 1951. Because of Utah’s anti-misegenation laws at the time they could not get married in the Salt Lake Temple and had to go the Cardston Alberta temple in Canada.

Sister Okazaki discussed this in an interview she gave before her death to Gregory Prince which is in the current issue of Dialogue.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:24:45 +0000

I’m not at all familiar with that story, andrew. I suspect you’re mixing it with another story, though, because as far as I know Edward Okazaki was as Japanese as Chieko Okazaki was. (Note that in the picture Chieko is standing next to the *missionary*, not her husband.)

By: andrew h

andrew h — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 20:07:18 +0000

Ardis,

I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Okasaki’s had a hard time getting their sealing ceremony done in the Salt Lake Temple. Not because of any Church doctrine or practice, but because of the anti-miscegenation laws that were still on the books in Utah at the time. Are you familiar with this? Am I just confusing my facts/stories?

By: lindberg

lindberg — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 18:15:15 +0000

Awesome. You find the best stuff, Ardis!

By: Mark B.

Mark B. — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 15:16:27 +0000

Her hair got better with age.

By: Chocolate on my Cranium

Chocolate on my Cranium — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 14:08:50 +0000

I loved Sister Okasaki!

By: HokieKate

HokieKate — Wed, 25 Apr 2012 13:58:16 +0000

Neat!