Even after retiring in 1984, Agnes Asato used to come into work early in the morning at the Wisteria restaurant to make the restaurant's popular hamburger mix.

Asato continued to live an active life after she stepped down as chair of the Wisteria's parent company, which also owned the KC Drive Inn in Kapahulu.

"She flew a hot-air balloon over Africa when she was 71 years old. She rode a camel in Egypt," said her son Roy Asato.

"She even traveled to Australia to see Halley's comet."

Asato died July 30. She was 95.

Born in Waialua to issei parents, Asato was a driving force behind a restaurant business that served hamburgers, oxtail soup and waffle hot dogs to generations of local residents.

Roy Asato said his mother and father, the late K.C. Jiro Asato, got their start in 1934 when they bought the KC Drive Inn from local businessmen George Knapp and Elwood Christiansen.

That was in the middle of the Great Depression and the Asatos paid about $100 for the popular eatery.

After her husband died in 1960, Agnes Asato took over the day-to-day management and later expanded the business by acquiring the Wisteria in 1971, then one of the more popular family restaurants in town.

Local comedian Frank De Lima was a regular and served as Wisteria's advertising pitchman from the 1970s to the 1990s.

The late Gabby Pahinui used to hold impromptu slack-key guitar sessions at the restaurant's bar during the 1970s.

Roy Asato said the Wisteria closed in 2004 and the KC Drive Inn closed shortly after that when he and his siblings decided to retire.

A 7-Eleven convenience store and gas station now sit at the former Wisteria location, while the former KC Drive Inn property now houses a medical building.

"All of these memories are gone," Roy Asato said.

Agnes Asato is survived by sister Norma Tamashiro; brother Jack Gusukuma; sons James and Roy Asato; and daughters Elsie Asato, Helen Asato and Mildred Oku.

She also has 10 grandchildren and 11 great-grandchildren.

Services will be held at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Hosoi Garden Mortuary.