Karen "Kitty" Okamura's Obituary
KITTY WONG OKAMURA
1942 – 2025
The fabulous Kitty Wong Okamura embarked on her next great adventure on Friday afternoon, June 20, 2025. Kitty enjoyed and embraced life, people, animals, and adventure with a sense of humor, elegance, and style. She also embraced stripes, polka dots, and color. Lots of color. Kitty cared for all of us through acts of beautiful generosity and support, and attention to detail.
A fourth generation Californian, Kitty was born Karen Donna Wong in Oakland on August 28, 1942, to Bay Area architect Worley K. Wong and Ada Chan Wong. She was the great-granddaughter of Lim Lip Hong, who arrived in San Francisco from China in 1855, helped build the Transcontinental Railroad, and settled in Potrero Hill; granddaughter of Wong Git Yow, who arrived in Port Townsend from China in 1880, worked mines in Utah and Colorado, opened a restaurant in South Dakota, and settled in San Francisco Chinatown, which he helped fund to rebuild after the 1906 earthquake and fire; and grand-niece of early Chinese American aviator Art Lym.
Kitty, irrepressibly social and fun-loving, was not particularly studious. She cut Chinese school in Oakland, broke curfew and other rules at Willamette University (rearranging her dorm room furniture and wallpapering it with Marlboro cigarette cartons). This led to her return home and her parents arranging for her enrollment at the California College of Arts and Crafts (CCAC, now CCA). There, she happily found herself awash in color and design and in the company of marvelously cool new friends. Her education at CCAC influenced her future business ventures.
A talented retailer, Kitty’s first store was Black Sheep, a contemporary textile and needlework store at The Cannery in San Francisco. Next came Pinestreet Papery in 1978, a colorful and design-oriented paper and gift shop in Sausalito. It was then that she asked Andrea Grossman for a simple, elegant red heart sticker, which Andrea designed. That sticker was the beginning of Mrs. Grossman’s Stickers by the Yard.
Married three times, Kitty was widowed in 2009 by her husband artist Arthur Okamura. Kitty was a loving and generous daughter, sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, wife, stepmother, mother-in-law, step-grandmother, and friend. She is survived by daughter Stephanie Tom Coupe (David); grandson William Worley Coupe; granddaughter Lindsay Chan Coupe; stepchildren Beth Okamura, Jonathan Okamura (Esther), Jane Okamura, Ethan Okamura (Catherine Hickey); step-grandchildren Taro Smithson, Molly Okamura, Avery Okamura, Kierra Sankoff, Kodi Okamura, Kalvin Okamura; and granddogs Cassius and Coda.
A Memorial Service will take place Sunday, July 6th at 3 p.m. at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland. Donations in her memory may be made to: The Bolinas Museum, 48 Wharf Road, P.O. Box 450, Bolinas, California 94924. https://bolinasmuseum.org.
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