Jue Joe passes away in 1941 and the family gathers for his memorial service.
LA Times March 2nd, 1941.
My great aunt Corrine is one of the contestants in a Chinatown beauty contest to select a " Moon Goddess" to help the China war relief efforts. LA Times July 21, 1941
Great aunt Dorothy is attending USC majoring in biological sciences and is elected president of the Chinese Student's Club. LA Times Oct , 16, 1941
ps. In my search of LA Times archives I was able to locate a newspaper article about my grandfather, San Tong Jue, asparagus farming during the war dated March 31, 1944. I have edited a previous post to include the newspaper copy that accompanies a picture I shared earlier . 
Jue Joe was 81-years old when he died in 1941, but his son San Tong added a couple of years to make him 83-years old for the media. This is because the number "8" and the number "3" each means good luck in Chinese. And so "83-years old" means "double good luck." This was San Tong's Chinese way of honoring his father: Reverence for a person who has reached "sage" status, which is 80-years old and plus. Then a picture of the deceased patriarch is hung on a choice wall for all descendants to respect and to remember his legacy. A portrait of Jue Joe hung on a wall above the mantel of our fireplace, in the living room of our big house on the Van Nuys ranch, a ranch which San Tong renamed "Jue Joe Ranch."
ReplyDeleteJR: I'm glad you found the news articles of Corrine and Dorothy, thanks for sharing them with us. Corrine was a fine arts major at L.A. Valley College before transfering to UCLA. Through her activities in the China War Relief she met her future husband, Lansing Kwok. It was Lansing's cousin, Ji Yoong, a fellow fundraiser, who introduced them; Ji Yoong had married T.A. Soong, the youngest brother of Madame Chiang Kai-shek, Mei-ling Soong. And Dorothy was pre-med, she wanted to be a doctor. So after USC she transferred to John Hopkins University to do graduate work. San Tong had always encouraged his sisters to get a good education, something that had eluded their father and himself. He gladly paid for their schooling and expenses. Because the lawsuit was so devastating and so painful for our parents no photos of the aunts exist. In addition, I wish you could have seen the photo of "Oliver," Jue Joe's young attorney whom he'd financed through law school. It was Oliver who helped bring San Tong, San You, and Leong Shee from China to America. I remember the photo. Oliver was a handsome, fair-haired young man. He posed with his right arm resting on a lawyer's podium. I think it was his graduation picture and he was about 24-years old. He had a sensitive and intelligent looking face. Auntie Soo-Yin.
ReplyDeleteAfter Corrine transferred to UCLA, from Los Angeles Valley College, she changed her major from fine arts to nursing. This is because China was at war with Japan and there was great need and call for medical personnel. (Ji Yoong had helped arrange for Madame Chiang Kai-shek's speaking engagements in the USA, and later for her stay at the Mayo Clinic for a health problem.) So many young Chinese-American students began to enter the medical and health sciences field at this time. And Dorothy's interest in becoming a doctor was also influenced by the passions of the times. Auntie Soo-Yin.
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