Jean Sadako King (née McKillop; born December 6, 1925 – November 24, 2013) was the seventh lieutenant governor of Hawaii, the state's first woman to be elected as such, from 1978 to 1982 in the administration of Governor George Ariyoshi.
Family
Jean Sadako King was the daughter of William Donald McKillop and Chiyo Murakami McKillop. They married in the early 1920s. Her father, William Donald McKillop, was a postmaster of Scottish descent, whereas her mother, Chiyo Murakami Mckillop, was Japanese. Chiyo came from a family of coffee farmers in Kona. King's parents' interracial relationship was not common during that era. The couple settled in an area near Piikoi and Beretania in Honolulu, where King was born and raised. Later, King married James A. King and had a son and a daughter. King participated in various after-school activities while attending the Sacred Hearts Academy and was involved in Japanese dancing, tap, hula, and typing and shorthand lessons. After the election, King chose to retire from electoral politics.
Death and legacy
According to her granddaughter, King died at age 87 from pancreatic cancer on November 24, 2013. With the effort and strides that King made, she had been an influence for more women to run for political positions in Hawaii. Senator Mazie Hirono was one of the women who admired King and remembered her with "As the first person elected to the office of lieutenant governor, Jean helped paved the way for women, such as myself." Colleen Hanabusa recognized King as a female role model.
See also
- List of female lieutenant governors in the United States
- List of minority governors and lieutenant governors in the United States