The Hometown History column is presented by the Fenton History Center and The Post-Journal. Each Friday, a distinct item from the Fenton History Center collections or archival special collections will be featured. Learn about your hometown history through parts of its past.
If one of the items featured brings back some memories or brings up a question, please contact the Fenton History Center at 664-6256 or information@fentonhistorycenter.org to share your memory or get an answer to your question.
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When reading the article about Lt. Boon Takagi in The Post-Journal over Memorial Day weekend, I realized that in our collection was the memorial booklet for his sister, Nobuko. When I first found this booklet in the archives backlog, the first question was "Why do we have this?" It is written in the Thai language but has some English translations. It was not until I got to page 11 of the 26-page booklet that I found an English caption on a photograph that read "Celoron Bath House, Chakra and moi, July 8, 1934." So there was a local connection and reading more of the translations revealed the story.
Nobuko, meaning "endless expansion," was the fourth child born to Rokujiro and Lulubelle (Winney) Takagi. There were seven other children, one dying as an infant, some of whom continued to live in the Western New York area. Nobuko was born in Rhode Island, started school in North Carolina, finished school in New York state and attended Cornell University. It was there that she met, fell in love with and married M.R. Chakratong Tongyai, a member of one of Thailand's royal families.
In 1935, she went to Thailand where she lived, worked, raised a family and died in 1990. She was a teacher at Chulatongkorn University, continuing as a government official and advancing to become the head of the Department of English from 1959 until her retirement in 1972. As a government official, she had to use a Thai name. At the suggestion of her father-in-law, she became Nopakhun, meaning "gold of the highest quality." She continued to serve the government after her retirement from the university and in 1985, His Majesty the King, honored her by bestowing upon her the Most Illustrious Order of Chula Chom Klao, Second Class, the highest decoration for a female commoner, which gave her the title of "Thanpuying."
Does anyone know what high school she attended? The family was supposed to have been living in Celoron or Jamestown at the time she would have graduated, but she is not in the Jamestown yearbooks or school lists of graduates and she is not in Celoron records, although others of that surname were at Celoron.
Her husband had studied entomology at Cornell and served the Thai government as Minister of Agriculture and Cooperatives. They had four children who now live in Japan and Thailand. Two have earned doctorates and at least one is connected with the university.
It was in 1991 that a local person, Dr. Harriet Northrup, received this booklet from Nobuko's family. Dr. Northrup, a local pediatrician, had gone to Cornell with Nobuko and had visited her in Thailand. It was Dr. Northrup who gave the booklet to the Fenton History Center. Pat Parker also wrote an article about the life of Nobuko, as revealed by the booklet, for The Post-Journal in 1991.
Some people may remember one of Nobuko's older sisters, Tomiko, who for five years before her death in 1967 ran the newsstand at the Federal Building on Third Street. The oldest brother followed in his father's footsteps by being a chef in Buffalo area restaurants. The other sisters married and lived in New York state. The youngest brother married and lived out of state, and the other brother was Lt. Boon Takagi who died in Italy during World War II.
The father, Rokujiro, was born in Japan and came to the United States in 1887 at the age of 16. He was a salesman of oriental art in the Rochester area and elsewhere. His wife, Lulubelle Winney, was born in the Rochester area. She died in Thailand where she had gone to visit. She was there for Nobuko's retirement on Sept. 30, 1972. The next day, October 1, 1972, she died. Her ashes were brought back to Lakeview Cemetery where her husband and two children are buried. In Jamestown, Rokujiro and Lulubelle operated the East and West Restaurant at 108 E. Third St. The restaurant continued after his death in 1937. The last listing for the restaurant in the city directories is 1942. In 1944, Lulubelle is listed as a cook at Gretchen's Kitchen and her daughter, Tomiko, was an assistant cook at the Town Club. By 1953, they were living in Celoron at 50 W. Eighth St. In 1963, Lulubelle is listed as a cook for Leo Ludwig at the present Sheldon House but residing in Celoron.
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The purpose of the Fenton History Center is to gather and teach about southern Chautauqua County's history through artifacts, ephemeral and oral histories, and other pieces of the past.
If you would like to donate to the collections or support the work of the Fenton History Center, call 664-6256 or visit the center at 67 Washington St., just south of the Washington Street Bridge.
Visit www.fentonhistorycenter.org for more information on upcoming events, education programs and other happenings at the Fenton History Center
