May (Hinoki) Mineta, a beloved mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, and friend, passed away peacefully on July 3 after a sudden and quick bout with bone cancer. She was 90.
Mineta was born in 1934 in the Sacramento Valley town of Colusa, the youngest of six children. Her parents, Miyako and Frank S. Hinoki, immigrated from Hiroshima.
She was raised in Colusa among a small, close-knit Asian community. She worked after school in her parents’ dry cleaning business and provided childcare for local families to earn money for college. Her love of singing, religious music, and her strong faith flourished in the musical Hinoki household. She had a beautiful voice and often performed solos.
Mineta was active in the Trinity Methodist Church and attended local schools until World War II, when her family and 120,000 others of Japanese descent, a majority of whom were U.S. citizens, were uprooted from their communities and unjustly incarcerated in federal concentration camps. The Hinokis were sent to Amache Relocation Center (also known as Granada) in Colorado. This experience had a lasting impact on their lives.
After the war, the family returned to Colusa, where Mineta completed high school. She then enrolled in San Francisco State College, where she earned a degree in special education and a credential to teach children with hearing challenges. She was an active member of Pine Methodist Church.
Upon graduation, she moved to San Jose and began teaching at a local school district. She joined Wesley Methodist Church, where she met her future husband, Norman Mineta (1931-2022), who operated his family’s insurance agency at the time and later became mayor. The couple married in 1961 and had three sons: David, Stuart, and Phillip, who died shortly after birth.
After her husband was elected to Congress, the family moved to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area in 1974. She actively volunteered on service projects, began lifelong friendships, and established a new home for their family in Alexandria, Va.
After the couple divorced, Mineta relocated in 1988 to Walnut Creek, Contra Costa County, where she lived for more than 30 years. She immersed herself with the care-outreach program at Stephens Ministry with Hillside Covenant Church, participated in a weekly Thursday night Bible study group, and was a member of a quilting group that made and donated more than 800 comfort quilts to others. She also enjoyed volunteering her time as the chief advisor to the B Walker Ranch, which provides a day program for adults with autism.
Aside from her involvement outside of the house, her true joy and excitement gravitated around her grandchildren. She relished family gatherings and watching her sons’ children at recitals, sporting events, and other extracurricular activities. She cared for many of her grandchildren and even her own aging siblings.
In 2022, Mineta and her brother Earsei transitioned together to an assisted-living community in Milpitas, Santa Clara County, where they made new friends and adjusted to a new community.
Mineta is survived by sons David (Christine) and Stuart (Scarlett) Mineta; grandchildren Freddy, Lauryn, Matthew, Presley, Gracie, Yoshiko, and Ileana; and many loving nieces and nephews. She is preceded in death by parents, Miyako and Frank S. Hinoki; siblings, Emiko (Grant) Shimizu, Hizeko (Akiji) Yoshimura, Koe, George, and Earsei Hinoki; and son, Phillip Mineta.
In a social media post announcing his mother’s passing, David Mineta, president and CEO of San Jose-based Momentum for Health, said, “As sad as I am to lose her, I’m equally relieved she’s not in pain anymore. As she said to the oncologist when he gave her the news, she had lived a long life caring for her family and friends and she was ready, strong in her faith in God.
“We’d like to thank all the Kaiser Santa Clara hospital staff … including the MDs, nurses, techs, and environmental service folks, for treating her with care and compassion. Also, we are very grateful to the Westmont of Milpitas administrators, caregivers and med techs and Bristol Hospice staff for treating her like their own.
“Neither Mom nor her family would have been able to get through her illness and passing without our family and friends who rallied around her from the start. We have so much love for our extended family who traveled from afar, prayed hourly for her health, and visited repeatedly.
“It’s difficult for me to accept the new reality of a world without Mom’s kindness and love. It turns out that the broad shoulders I had been standing on all my life were as much if not more my 5-foot-tall mother’s. I am forever grateful to be May’s son.”