Longtime Sacramento civil rights activist and Capitol staffer Georgette Imura dies at 77 Sacramento Bee 12/24/2020 Ashley Wong, The Sacramento Bee Dec. 23—Longtime Sacramento civil rights activist and Capitol staffer Georgette Imura died from lung cancer on Dec. 17. She was 77. Imura was born Georgette Yamamoto on October 18, 1943, in the Manzanar concentration camp at the foot of the Sierra Nevadas. She spent the first two years of her life imprisoned there before her family was eventually released. Her family settled in midtown Sacramento when she was 4. Described as feisty, headstrong and bold her whole life, Imura entered the Capitol for the first time as a receptionist in 1967, working her way over the course of 28 years to hold numerous leadership positions in the state Legislature.