Sharon Okubo

Sharon Nobuyama was born in Tule Lake, California on October 13, 1942, to Jim and Shizuko Nobuyama. She had one older sister, Nancy, one younger sister, Jan, and three younger brothers, Steve, Rich and Ron.

Sharon attended Highlands Elementary School and McKnight Middle School in Renton, then attended and graduated in 1960 from Franklin High School in Seattle.

In 1965, Sharon was working for the Seattle Municipal Courthouse where she was reacquainted with Jerry Okubo, who was accompanying his brother that needed to pay a traffic violation. Soon after, they began dating. And well, it must have meant to be, because on the day Sharon moved to Seattle after middle school, she told Jerry’s brother that when she grew up, she was going to marry Jerry.

Jerry Okubo was a teacher at the school both Jerry and Sharon attended. After they were engaged, his students, with the help of their parents, Jerry and Sharon’s friends, and some staff, had a surprise wedding shower for the couple at school. Sharon and Jerry were so touched that they invited the whole class to attend their wedding! They married on April 2,1966.

In 1967, they had their daughter, Lisa. Lisa is grateful that her mother, Sharon made sure family and Japanese traditions were passed down, appreciated and continued, from Bon Odori to eating mochi on New Year’s Day. Lisa is also so grateful for all the love, generosity and thoughtfulness her mom gave everyone she cared about. She is also so thankful for all her mom has taught her and advice given to her throughout her life.

Sharon worked a number of jobs and also volunteered a lot, helping out whomever was in need. Her jobs ranged from working for the City of Seattle to Alaskan Copper to helping out a local record store, Tosh’s One Stop, who needed help at the time. Her career interest eventually turned towards medical transcription. She completed her certification and started working at the University of Washington Medical Center. Shortly after, she was offered a position to work at Hall Health Center, the student health center on upper campus. It was an exciting move for her. She enjoyed being on UW upper campus amidst all the students and professors and helping the health care providers document their patient visits, doing her best to help them provide the best care to keep students in school. She took great care in making sure everything was accurate. She retired from Hall Health after 31 years in 2008.

Throughout Sharon’s life, she would pursue anything that interested her and therefore had many hobbies and activities. In her younger years, she sewed many of her daughter and her daughter’s best friend’s dresses, amongst many other items. She even got into cake decorating and her cakes were beautiful and delicious! She crocheted and knitted many baby blankets and sweaters. And HATS! With her mom and sister, Jan, they would knit tons of hats and donate them to those in need. She liked to quilt, tat, and really loved lacemaking. She made the trim around Lisa’s gloves for her wedding. Amongst other activities, she also helped coach Lisa’s soccer team when Lisa started playing soccer, helped coach softball with her neighbor, liked bowling and golf, and played volleyball for a number of years. After she retired, she started playing the ukulele, too!

As mentioned earlier, she volunteered a lot. She always helped at her parents’ church fundraisers, she helped when Lisa was in Camp Fire Girls, and she volunteered to maintain the library for her lacemakers group. While Sharon’s mom was in rehabilitation at Keiro, Sharon and Jerry would help transport the food carts to the residents and continued to do so even after her mom recuperated. At Nikkei Manor, they volunteered to help on Bingo night even after her mom had passed away. They also helped with Communion and many maintenance workgroups at their church.

Sharon and Jerry moved to Shoreline in 2006, which made Sharon’s commute to work and to her grandchildren significantly shorter, and she enjoyed being so close to the city where she loved again. She would make trip plans with the girls during the summers to visit places using public transportation. We would hear exciting recaps of their days.

Her grandchildren were enough reason for Sharon to finally ride a plane. Initially, we were finally able to convince her to come with us to Disneyworld in Florida a few times, and then to Hawaii, which she loved! Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Jerry would take walks every morning at daybreak, along Kalakaua Avenue, stop in at the nearby Starbucks, then walk down the pier and back. She was a trooper even through our last trip together, just to be there again with us and to catch the island air.

Sharon was a fun-loving, generous, kind and caring person who would jump in to help whenever she saw the need. We will miss her thoughtfulness and how she would look out on everyone’s behalf, and how she always looked for ways to make any task a fun challenge. She leaves us with many joyful memories that we will cherish in our hearts.

Shortly after turning 79, Sharon passed away at home on November 5, 2021, with Jerry by her side. Sharon was preceded in death by her two sisters -- Nancy and Jan (Bruce). She is survived by her husband -- Jerry; 3 brothers -- Steve (Donna), Rich, and Ron; her daughter -- Lisa (Stephen); Grandchildren -- Jessica and Gabby; and many nieces, nephews and grand-nephews.

Our family extends our sincere appreciation for all the thoughts and kind sympathy that we have received. And, thank you to Sid Ko of Butterworth Funeral Home and Steve Walker of Sunset Hills Cemetery for all their support and guidance.

We will honor Sharon’s wishes to have a private ceremony. In lieu of donations, Sharon and her family would like you to donate to a charity of your choice.