Los Angeles
County
Biographies
FRED W. YOSHIMURA
Most
of the exquisite flowers and shrubs which are the mainstay of Oriental gardens
and which lend themselves gracefully to southern California landscaping are
specialties of Fred Yoshimura’s San Gabriel Nurseries. Azaleas, camellias, ornamental shrubs,
tropical plants, flowering pot plants, bonsai, and imported pottery are all
available at the main nursery at 632 South San Gabriel Boulevard. The oldest and largest retail nursery in the
San Gabriel area, it was started by Mr. Yoshimura in 1923 as the Mission
Nursery at 735 South San Gabriel Boulevard and was moved to its present location,
under its present name in 1945. San
Gabriel Nursery employs sixty people and has three locations: the retail nursery in San Gabriel, a nursery
in Los Angeles, and growing grounds and greenhouse at 901 Potrero Grande in
South San Gabriel where close to forty acres of flowers and nursery stock are
grown. Before the war Mr. Yoshimura also
did landscaping.
A
native of Japan, Mr. Yoshimura has lived forty-five years in this country. He was born in Yamaguchi, Japan, on April 2,
1895, the son of Masajuro Yoshimura, a farmer still
living in Japan, and the late Satsu (Nishiyama) Yoshimura, neither of whom came to the United
States. He was educated in Japan at Iwakuni High School and came to the United States, to San
Mateo, at the age of twenty-three in 1917, coming to San Gabriel four years
later.
Mr.
Yoshimura is a member of the San Gabriel Chamber of Commerce and the California
Farm Bureau. He is also a member of the
Southern California Flower Growers’ Association, and its vice president in
1954, and is a member of the California Nurserymen’s Association. A member of the Buddhist Church in Los
Angeles, he is active on its board of directors. Well known in Japanese-American circles, Mr.
Yoshimura’s name is included in the “United States-Japan Centennial Book” and the
1962 “Who’s Who of Japanese in the United States.”
Four
children were born to Mr. Yoshimura and his wife, the former Mitoko Naito of Japan, whom he married in South Pasadena on
February 29, 1924. The eldest son, Hayao, “Tony”, is a graduate of Mark Keppel High School, as
are his brother and sisters, served in the United States Army during World War
II, and manages a store on Wall Street in Los Angeles. He is married and the father of four
children: Gerald, Curtis, James, and
Kathleen. The second son, Raymond, graduated from Ohio State University and was
in the United States Army in 1946. He is
a San Gabriel resident, is married, and the father of three daughters: Miki, Susan, and Barbara. Mrs. Suburo
(Florence) Ishihara graduated from business college; she and her husband work
at the San Gabriel Nursery, as do her sister, Mr. Yoshimura’s young daughter,
Mrs. Ichiro (Margie) Yoshihashi, and her husband who
is a graduate of Ohio State University.
The Yoshihashi’s, who live in Rosemead, have
two sons, Robert and Harold Ben, students at Roosevelt School.
Transcribed by
V. Gerald Iaquinta.
Source:
Historical Volume & Reference Works Including Alhambra, Monterey Park,
Rosemead, San Gabriel & Temple City, by Robert P. Studer,
Page 643, Historical Publ., Los Angeles, California. 1962.
© 2013 V. Gerald Iaquinta.
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NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES BIOGRAPHIES