'June' Hendrix, stepmother of Jimi Hendrix
by Carole Beers, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Ayako "June" Hendrix, stepmother of legendary Seattle-born guitarist Jimi Hendrix, worked hard to make a cozy home for her family.
She was adept at cooking both her traditional Japanese fare and her adopted African-American soul food.
She encouraged her children in all their endeavors. And she sewed and crocheted clothes for everyone.
But the woman who spent World War II in a relocation camp also made time for laughter, shopping, and talk with the friends she made wherever she went.
Mrs. Hendrix died of cancer Friday (Aug. 20, 1999). She was 79. She had fought back from a 1980 stroke.
Born in Puyallup to Kimiko Shimamura and Kumaichi Fujita, she went to Japan at age 7 to live with her grandparents and go to school.
At 22, she returned to the U.S. and spent World War II interned with others of Japanese ancestry at Idaho's Minidoka Relocation Camp. There she married Satoshi Jinka, whom she later divorced.
After working as a dry cleaners' tailor and presser, then as a housekeeper, she met James "Al" Hendrix, Jimi's father.
She wed Hendrix in 1966. She considered his children by another marriage as her own. She also persuaded him to adopt her youngest child, Janie.
"Friends introduced us. We just hit it off," said James Hendrix. "She was a Buddhist and I was a Methodist, but it didn't make any difference.
"She and Jimi got along fine. Jimi was glad that I got married again... and Jimi and June got real close. Jimi enjoyed having a
baby sister again."
Mrs. Hendrix learned to love Jimi's music. Her favorite tunes were "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "All Along the Watchtower."
"Oh, wow, she loved it," said her son, Willie Jinka of Edmonds. "There will be a rock band playing 'Foxy Lady' at the funeral. She always called herself a foxy lady. She was pretty much a character."
She wore purple dresses, purple hats and glasses with a purple tint.
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix died in 1970 at age 27 of a drug overdose.
Mrs. Hendrix acquired her nickname of "June" while working at the dry cleaners, where co-workers could not pronounce her name.
"She was born in June," said Hendrix, "so she told the other women to call her June."
Also surviving are her other children, Marsha Lake, Kent, and Linda Jinka, Donna Jinka and Janie Hendrix, all of Seattle; her siblings Hiroshi Fujita, of Tacoma, and Kazuma Fujita and Kikuko Morita, both of Seattle; and numerous grandchildren.
Services are scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday at Columbia Funeral Home, 4567 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle. Interment will be next to Jimi Hendrix at Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton.
by Carole Beers, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Ayako "June" Hendrix, stepmother of legendary Seattle-born guitarist Jimi Hendrix, worked hard to make a cozy home for her family.
She was adept at cooking both her traditional Japanese fare and her adopted African-American soul food.
She encouraged her children in all their endeavors. And she sewed and crocheted clothes for everyone.
But the woman who spent World War II in a relocation camp also made time for laughter, shopping, and talk with the friends she made wherever she went.
Mrs. Hendrix died of cancer Friday (Aug. 20, 1999). She was 79. She had fought back from a 1980 stroke.
Born in Puyallup to Kimiko Shimamura and Kumaichi Fujita, she went to Japan at age 7 to live with her grandparents and go to school.
At 22, she returned to the U.S. and spent World War II interned with others of Japanese ancestry at Idaho's Minidoka Relocation Camp. There she married Satoshi Jinka, whom she later divorced.
After working as a dry cleaners' tailor and presser, then as a housekeeper, she met James "Al" Hendrix, Jimi's father.
She wed Hendrix in 1966. She considered his children by another marriage as her own. She also persuaded him to adopt her youngest child, Janie.
"Friends introduced us. We just hit it off," said James Hendrix. "She was a Buddhist and I was a Methodist, but it didn't make any difference.
"She and Jimi got along fine. Jimi was glad that I got married again... and Jimi and June got real close. Jimi enjoyed having a
baby sister again."
Mrs. Hendrix learned to love Jimi's music. Her favorite tunes were "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "All Along the Watchtower."
"Oh, wow, she loved it," said her son, Willie Jinka of Edmonds. "There will be a rock band playing 'Foxy Lady' at the funeral. She always called herself a foxy lady. She was pretty much a character."
She wore purple dresses, purple hats and glasses with a purple tint.
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix died in 1970 at age 27 of a drug overdose.
Mrs. Hendrix acquired her nickname of "June" while working at the dry cleaners, where co-workers could not pronounce her name.
"She was born in June," said Hendrix, "so she told the other women to call her June."
Also surviving are her other children, Marsha Lake, Kent, and Linda Jinka, Donna Jinka and Janie Hendrix, all of Seattle; her siblings Hiroshi Fujita, of Tacoma, and Kazuma Fujita and Kikuko Morita, both of Seattle; and numerous grandchildren.
Services are scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday at Columbia Funeral Home, 4567 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle. Interment will be next to Jimi Hendrix at Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton.
'June' Hendrix, stepmother of Jimi Hendrix
by Carole Beers, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Ayako "June" Hendrix, stepmother of legendary Seattle-born guitarist Jimi Hendrix, worked hard to make a cozy home for her family.
She was adept at cooking both her traditional Japanese fare and her adopted African-American soul food.
She encouraged her children in all their endeavors. And she sewed and crocheted clothes for everyone.
But the woman who spent World War II in a relocation camp also made time for laughter, shopping, and talk with the friends she made wherever she went.
Mrs. Hendrix died of cancer Friday (Aug. 20, 1999). She was 79. She had fought back from a 1980 stroke.
Born in Puyallup to Kimiko Shimamura and Kumaichi Fujita, she went to Japan at age 7 to live with her grandparents and go to school.
At 22, she returned to the U.S. and spent World War II interned with others of Japanese ancestry at Idaho's Minidoka Relocation Camp. There she married Satoshi Jinka, whom she later divorced.
After working as a dry cleaners' tailor and presser, then as a housekeeper, she met James "Al" Hendrix, Jimi's father.
She wed Hendrix in 1966. She considered his children by another marriage as her own. She also persuaded him to adopt her youngest child, Janie.
"Friends introduced us. We just hit it off," said James Hendrix. "She was a Buddhist and I was a Methodist, but it didn't make any difference.
"She and Jimi got along fine. Jimi was glad that I got married again... and Jimi and June got real close. Jimi enjoyed having a
baby sister again."
Mrs. Hendrix learned to love Jimi's music. Her favorite tunes were "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "All Along the Watchtower."
"Oh, wow, she loved it," said her son, Willie Jinka of Edmonds. "There will be a rock band playing 'Foxy Lady' at the funeral. She always called herself a foxy lady. She was pretty much a character."
She wore purple dresses, purple hats and glasses with a purple tint.
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix died in 1970 at age 27 of a drug overdose.
Mrs. Hendrix acquired her nickname of "June" while working at the dry cleaners, where co-workers could not pronounce her name.
"She was born in June," said Hendrix, "so she told the other women to call her June."
Also surviving are her other children, Marsha Lake, Kent, and Linda Jinka, Donna Jinka and Janie Hendrix, all of Seattle; her siblings Hiroshi Fujita, of Tacoma, and Kazuma Fujita and Kikuko Morita, both of Seattle; and numerous grandchildren.
Services are scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday at Columbia Funeral Home, 4567 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle. Interment will be next to Jimi Hendrix at Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton.
by Carole Beers, Seattle Times Staff Reporter
Ayako "June" Hendrix, stepmother of legendary Seattle-born guitarist Jimi Hendrix, worked hard to make a cozy home for her family.
She was adept at cooking both her traditional Japanese fare and her adopted African-American soul food.
She encouraged her children in all their endeavors. And she sewed and crocheted clothes for everyone.
But the woman who spent World War II in a relocation camp also made time for laughter, shopping, and talk with the friends she made wherever she went.
Mrs. Hendrix died of cancer Friday (Aug. 20, 1999). She was 79. She had fought back from a 1980 stroke.
Born in Puyallup to Kimiko Shimamura and Kumaichi Fujita, she went to Japan at age 7 to live with her grandparents and go to school.
At 22, she returned to the U.S. and spent World War II interned with others of Japanese ancestry at Idaho's Minidoka Relocation Camp. There she married Satoshi Jinka, whom she later divorced.
After working as a dry cleaners' tailor and presser, then as a housekeeper, she met James "Al" Hendrix, Jimi's father.
She wed Hendrix in 1966. She considered his children by another marriage as her own. She also persuaded him to adopt her youngest child, Janie.
"Friends introduced us. We just hit it off," said James Hendrix. "She was a Buddhist and I was a Methodist, but it didn't make any difference.
"She and Jimi got along fine. Jimi was glad that I got married again... and Jimi and June got real close. Jimi enjoyed having a
baby sister again."
Mrs. Hendrix learned to love Jimi's music. Her favorite tunes were "Foxy Lady," "Purple Haze" and "All Along the Watchtower."
"Oh, wow, she loved it," said her son, Willie Jinka of Edmonds. "There will be a rock band playing 'Foxy Lady' at the funeral. She always called herself a foxy lady. She was pretty much a character."
She wore purple dresses, purple hats and glasses with a purple tint.
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix died in 1970 at age 27 of a drug overdose.
Mrs. Hendrix acquired her nickname of "June" while working at the dry cleaners, where co-workers could not pronounce her name.
"She was born in June," said Hendrix, "so she told the other women to call her June."
Also surviving are her other children, Marsha Lake, Kent, and Linda Jinka, Donna Jinka and Janie Hendrix, all of Seattle; her siblings Hiroshi Fujita, of Tacoma, and Kazuma Fujita and Kikuko Morita, both of Seattle; and numerous grandchildren.
Services are scheduled at 2 p.m. Sunday at Columbia Funeral Home, 4567 Rainier Ave. S., Seattle. Interment will be next to Jimi Hendrix at Greenwood Memorial Park, Renton.
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