Sono Osato was born on August 29, 1919, in Omaha, Nebraska, to a family of Japanese and European descent. Her father, Shoji Osato, was a Japanese immigrant who worked as a caretaker of the Phoenix Pavilion and its Japanese garden, while her mother, Frances Fitzpatrick, was of Irish-French Canadian descent. The family lived in Chicago, where Sono's father was interned during World War II due to the United States Government's Japanese American Internment policy.
Sono was the oldest of three siblings, with two younger siblings, Teru and Timothy. Teru married a U.S. naval officer and started a family in Norfolk, Virginia, while Timothy joined the 442nd Regimental Combat Team of the United States Army and fought on the front lines in Europe.
Sono began her career in dance at the age of fourteen with the Ballets Russe de Monte-Carlo, and later danced with American Ballet Theatre. She performed in numerous ballets, including Kenneth MacMillan's Sleeping Beauty, Antony Tudor's Pillar of Fire, and Bronislava Nijinska's The Beloved. As a musical theater performer, she appeared in several Broadway productions, including One Touch of Venus, On the Town, and Ballet Ballads.
In addition to her work in dance and theater, Sono also pursued a career as an actress, appearing in the Broadway production of Peer Gynt, the film The Kissing Bandit, and occasional guest appearances on TV series such as The Adventures of Ellery Queen.
Sono married real estate developer Victor Elmaleh in 1943 and had two sons with him. She died in 2014.
Throughout her life, Sono was a strong advocate for the arts and education. She founded the Sono Osato Scholarship Program in Graduate Studies at Career Transition For Dancers to help former dancers finance graduate work in both the professions and the liberal arts.
