Akiko Yanari

On March 16, 2021, Akiko Yanari of Dearborn, MI peacefully passed away. Aki was born July 25, 1926 to the late Yoshiro and Toku Fujita in Hanford, CA. After being interned in Jerome, AR during WWII, she moved to Philadelphia and graduated from the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps program at Pennsylvania Hospital in 1948. Aki relocated to Chicago where she married Sam Yanari on March 17, 1951, and worked at Passavant Memorial Hospital. Family and friends were the center of her life through relocations to St. Paul, MN; Park Forest, IL; and Huntington Woods, MI. An avid MSU basketball fan, Aki spent many years volunteering at Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit. Aki was preceded in death by her loving husband Sam in 2015. She is survived by her brothers Frank and Tsuneo (June) Fujita; children Tomi (Paul Gutterman), Yuri (David Gruber), Sachi (Scott Rizzo), and Steve Gutterman; and grandchildren Michael, Hannah, Schyler, and Maiya.