Kayo Jones was born on June 17, 1935, in Kyoto, Japan. She was the fourth of seven children born to Umejiro and Masae Masuda. Kayo passed from this life and went to her eternal home in Heaven on September 20, 2024. Funeral services will begin at 2:00 p.m. Tuesday, September 24, 2024 at the Stillwater First Baptist Church. Burial to follow in Perkins Cemetery. Strode Funeral Home and Cremation is in charge of the arrangements.

Kayo spent the first twenty-two years of life in the historic city of Kyoto. After graduating from high school, she worked briefly for a newspaper in Osaka, Japan. She then accepted employment with the
U.S. Army at Camp Otsu east of Kyoto. While working there, she met her husband Larry, an American serviceman stationed at Camp Otsu. They were married on April 1, 1958, and enjoyed more than sixty- six years of marriage together.

The first year of Kayo's life in America was spent in Alabama, where Larry was stationed at Fort Rucker for his final year of military service. The couple moved from Alabama to Stillwater, where Kayo worked in the OSU Student Union while Larry was in school. After Larry's graduation, the couple moved to Los Alamos, New Mexico.

The years in Los Alamos were good years with many special memories. Some of their top memories include Kayo receiving her American citizenship and the joyous birth of their first son, Randy. They also took their first trip back to Japan where they spent time with Kayo's family, did some traveling around Japan, and attended the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.

After several years in Los Alamos, the family of three moved to southern California. There Larry was employed as an aerospace engineer on the Apollo Saturn Program Huntington Beach, and Kayo worked as an electronic assembler for Orbit Electronics in Garden Grove. When the Apollo Saturn project began to wind down, the family moved to Tulsa, where Larry was a charter member of the Tulsa Junior College, and Kayo was a stay-at-home mom. During their time in Tulsa, the couple welcomed two more sons, Roger and Richard.

After eight enjoyable years in Tulsa, the family of five made a significant change and moved to Boumerdes, Algeria, along the Mediterranean coast in northern Africa. While Larry was teaching at the National Institute for Electricity and Electronics, Kayo was learning how to take care of her family in a whole new way. After putting her sons on the bus for their hour-long journey to school, she did everything from boiling water to drink, collecting water to wash clothes, making many American foods, such as ketchup, from scratch; Kayo did it all. She filled her days creating a wonderful home for her family despite the different and more difficult way of life. Larry and Kayo took full advantage of their year in Algeria and explored the Atlas Mountains and the Great Sahara Desert beyond the mountains. After their year in Algeria, they visited most of the countries in western Europe before returning to Tulsa.

Only a few months after their return to the states, they made the move to Stillwater, which has been their home ever since. While Larry was employed as a faculty member at OSU, Kayo worked for Stillwater Public Schools in Food Services for many years. Because of her job with the school system, Kayo was able to be with her boys after school and in the summers. For her many years of service to the school system, Kayo was honored at both the local and state levels as the Employee of the Year for Educational Support Personnel in 1988. During their many years in Stillwater, both Kayo and Larry were very involved in Stillwater's Sister City program with Kameoka, Japan. They also worked with and supported many international OSU students. They have hosted several hundred international students in their home throughout the years, and have remained close to several of them. One of Kayo's favorite things to do was cook for her family and friends. She especially enjoyed making traditional Japanese recipes and introducing them to her American friends.

Kayo and Larry were avid travelers. They have traveled to all fifty states, all forty-seven prefectures in Japan, and to more than thirty countries. They have lived and worked on four different continents. They spent seven months in Amman, Jordan, and two years in Kameoka, Japan, with the former OSU-K program. Everywhere they lived, Kayo was active in the church and served wherever she was needed. She was a generous and giving person. Wherever she traveled, she always took gifts if she was going to visit someone. She loved to buy gifts on her travels to bring home to her family, especially her grandchildren who adored her. After returning home from a trip to Colorado with her son Richard and grandson Ethan, Richard asked Ethan what he enjoyed most about the trip. Ethan responded with, "Spending time with Grandma." A few years ago Larry wrote a book for his children and grandchildren entitled "Life Has Been Good." The book was about the story of their lives together, and that life was truly good.
Kayo was preceded in death by an older sister Ayako Hirose, and her husband, two younger brothers, Kozaburo and Tasaburo Masuda.

She is survived by her husband Larry of Stillwater, son Randy of Tulsa, son Roger and wife Lisa and sons Tyler and Nathan of Stillwater, son Richard and wife Rheana and daughters Hannah and Hattie and son Ethan of Westfield, Indiana, sister-in-law Carol Dobbs of Stillwater, two older sisters, Yoshiko Masuda and Toshie Ueno and younger sister Kaori Ichikawa as well as several nieces, nephews and cousins in both America and Japan.