Tommy and Ruby Ono

Oct. 25, 2006

Misao "Ruby" and Tamotsu "Tommy" Ono's parents were born in Japan and came to Vancouver in the early 1920s. Ruby and Tommy were both born in 1924 in Richmond. They were in the same class at school until Tommy's family moved to Marpole. He was a fisherman working for his father and Ruby worked in the cannery until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour. Both families were interned and sent inland: Ruby's to Taber, Alberta and Tommy's to Trout Lake, south of Revelstoke. Tommy had taken auto mechanics classes at school and was hired as an apprentice in Taber where he got his licence in 1948 and where he and Ruby were married. They left Taber in 1951, returned to the Vancouver area and moved to Sechelt in 1956. Tommy had a contract for two years with Jackson Brothers Logging Company to run the company garage. He then bought Standard Motors with three local partners. Ruby worked at Redman's Grocery Store then as a nurses' aide at the hospital until she retired.