Kennewick Woman of the Year and popular restaurant owner dies. ‘Generous and caring soul’
A Tri-Cities entrepreneur and civic leader, known for taking action swiftly and quietly when she saw a need, has died.
Josie Wannarachue, 79, of Kennewick, died Sunday morning after being treated for five years for breast cancer.
Former Washington Gov. Gary Locke once said that her accomplishments “serve as a standard the rest of us can only dream of following.”
She was named the Kennewick Woman of the Year for 2013, an honor given to recognize community service.
She may be best known in the Tri-Cities business community for owning Kennewick’s King & I restaurant from 1995 to 2010.
But through the years she also had owned a travel agency, a gift shop, O’Henry’s restaurant in Kennewick, and apartments and other rentals, including three buildings in downtown Kennewick.
She was born near Manila in the Philippines and came to the Tri-Cities in 1972. Then her husband, Dr. Nikom Wannarachue, became the only pediatrician at the time in Kennewick and Pasco, with Josie, a registered nurse, working with him to manage his practice.
Many of her favorite causes were related to health care and education.
Health care, other causes
She co-led efforts along with the late Billie Jean Lampson to build the Tri-Cities Cancer Center, according to her nomination for Kennewick Woman of the Year.
She co-founded the Kennewick General Hospital Foundation, which later became the Trios Health Foundation.
She and her husband were the first community members to be honored at the hospital’s Gala D’Vine in 2005 for their contributions to health care, both, in the Tri-Cities and overseas, and their generosity.
The couple recruited dozens of doctors and nurses to the Tri-Cities and established Camp Trios, a place where children with diabetes could gather for fun and education each summer, according to Josie Wannarachue’s nomination for Kennewick Woman of the Year.
She served as a Columbia Basin College trustee for five years and was a host to dozens of foreign exchange students in the Tri-Cities.
She served on many other boards in the Tri-Cities, including the Mid-Columbia Arts Council, the March of Dimes, The ARC, the Philippine American Association and the Lion’s Club, according to her nomination for Kennewick Woman of the Year.
She also served as co-chairwoman for Mayfest for St. Joseph’s Catholic Church in Kennewick.
She and her husband formed the Asian Association in the Tri-Cities, and they maintained their ties to their homelands, including Thailand, where Dr. Wannarachue grew up.
Josie Wannarachue became an excellent Thai food cook, publishing a cookbook and adding Thai food to the menu at O’Henry’s during the years that she owned the restaurant.
As the restaurant changed ownership through the years, Josie Wannarachue made sure that the Kennewick High School class photos from the 1930s through the 1950s that decorated its walls went to the East Benton County Historical Museum.
Overseas generosity
When Mount Pinatubo erupted and spewed ash across part of the Philippines in 1991, Jose Wannarachue traveled to her parents’ home there and then into the mountains with supplies to help the 1,200 Aetas, aborigines of the Philippines, living in a makeshift relief camp.
She inherited property in the village her family founded in the Philippines, but turned down a cash offer to help those who depended on jobs there. She gave the rice fields to a church to help send poor children to school, according to a nomination for an award.
The Wannarachues also donated laptops to the school in Dr. Wannarachue’s home village to help its students better compete with those from more affluent schools. And they worked with the Rotary Club of Pasco-Kennewick to bring water filtration systems to schools in the area where Dr. Wannarachue grew up.
Josie Wannarachue’s generosity also was well known in the Tri-Cities, whether it was filling a refrigerator for a young couple moving to the Tri-Cities or buying Christmas gifts for children who might otherwise have none.
When a manicurist from Vietnam was struggling to support newborn twins in the Tri-Cities, Josie Wannarachue made sure she had formula and diapers to get the babies through at least their first 12 months.
In recent years Josie Wannarachue drew on her travel experience to plan and choreograph all the details for annual trips, often to Asia, and then invite groups of her plentiful friends to join her and Dr. Wannarachue.
“She was always up for another adventure,” said her friend Wanda Briggs, a Kennewick General Hospital District board member.
Josie Wannarachue services
Briggs posted on Facebook that Josie Wannarachue had “more friends than she could count and we are all broken-hearted.”
“She was the most generous and caring soul and her legacy will forever remain in my heart,” another friend posted.
Josie Wannarachue is survived by her husband, the three children they raised and three grandchildren.
Hillcrest Funerals and Cremation of Kennewick is in charge of arrangements.
A public viewing is 4-8 p.m. Wednesday, July 12, at Hillcrest, 9535 W. Clearwater Ave.
At 10 a.m. Thursday, July 13, a public viewing is planned at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Kennewick, followed by a Rosary at 11 a.m. and a funeral Mass at noon.
