Supercentenarian Profile

Shizuka LaGrange

Born:

1902-10-30

Takata District, Hiroshima Prefecture

Japan

Died:

2013-10-18

Seattle, Washington

United States

Shizuka LaGrange (née Taniguchi) was a Japanese-born American supercentenarian

BIOGRAPHY

Shizuka LaGrange was born in the village of Mita (now part of Hiroshima City) in Takata District, Hiroshima, Japan, on 30 October 1902. She became a certified teacher, and in 1920 she accepted her first teaching position in the small village of Oda. She later left Japan for what was intended to be a three-month visit to the United States to see her father, who was living in Montana. She ultimately remained in the United States for the rest of her life.

While in Montana, Shizuka met Masaru Onishi, and they married in 1923. They raised three children—Lucy (Yoshizawa), Ethel (Nayematsu), and Ray. Over the years, the family lived in Montana; at the Minidoka Relocation Camp in Hunt, Idaho; in Chicago; and finally in Seattle, where Masaru died in 1966. An active member of the Seattle Buddhist Church, Shizuka later met her second husband, Irl LaGrange, there. Irl passed away in Seattle in 2004.

LaGrange enjoyed sewing, was an avid gardener and card player, and took pleasure in participating in various forms of folk dancing.

Shizuka LaGrange passed away at Seattle Keiro nursing home in Seattle, Washington, on 18 October 2013, at the age of 110 years, 353 days.