Loraine (Mobley) Sanders

Loraine Mobley Sanders passed away on February 25, 2024, after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was under constant care from 2016 in Kentucky, and in Japan from 2019 until the day of her passing. She is survived by her son, Dan, his wife, Mineko, and their daughter Lana. She is also survived by her grandson, Jacob and her granddaughter, Jessica. Her daughter, Leslye, and ex-husband Desha Nicholson Sanders preceded her in passing. 

Loraine‘s life included many outstanding achievements, ranging from modeling to photographer’s assistant, to work for a local printer to commercial artist for the University of Kentucky’s Publications Department, to portrait painter and patron of the arts. She passed the test for a pilot’s license and was certified to fly solo in small twin-engine airplanes. As well, she was instrumental in the foundation of Lafayette Galleries on West Main Street, and Lexington‘s first high-end shoe boutique, Rainbow Slippers, which had her nickname, Rainbow, in its name. She was dearly loved by all who knew her. 

 Her first marriage, to Riley Wilkinson, gave way to seven or eight years as a single mother, during which time she faithfully cared for her family and consistently moved them to better conditions. In the transition between the 1960s and 70s she again wed, this time to Desha Nicholson Sanders, a marriage which lasted into the late 1980s. Her retirement years were lived on farmland in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky with her daughter Leslye and her family. There too, she made many friends and enjoyed many years of an active, productive and peaceful life. Only the passing of her daughter from ovarian cancer brought the years to a gradual waning of that idyllic way. It was certainly the most bereft turn of her life. 

 Her friendships and activities endured and continued to bring her much joy throughout. As her years increased, her memory declined to a diagnosis of cognitive impairment. In spite of her years, the process was gradual and mostly forgiving, from the time of its onset around 2011 to her necessary hospitalization in 2020. She was still in Kentucky at a retirement community as of 2019, and had outings and visits with friends new and old, and daily visits from her natural family. She made many new friends in Heartland Hills. 

Her transition to life with her son in Japan was to undergo the natural and gradual decline and diminished activity during the pandemic that would result in moving her from a nursing home in 2022, to full-time care at a hospital specializing in elderly patients. She was still visited faithfully during those years by her son and his family, even under strict conditions brought about by the coronavirus. 

 Very late in the pandemic, and well after her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter, she did contract the coronavirus, and she did recover. It was only after her recovery she drew a final breath, and made the peaceful passage into afterlife. She will be remembered, loved and missed by many in America and Japan.