Li Keng Gee Wong's Obituary
Li Keng Gee Wong, 1926-2018
Li Keng Gee Wong, a retired pioneering schoolteacher and author of a memoir about her immigration from China to Oakland, California, during the Chinese exclusion era, died on Monday, July 16, 2018, in Oakland. She was 92 years old.
She was born on April 6, 1926, in Goon Du Hahng village, Toisan County, Guangdong Province, China. A daughter of Gee Ghee Gheng, aka Gee Seow Hong, and Gee Suey Ting, aka Gee Theo Quee, she entered the U.S. in late November, 1933, after being detained with her mother and two sisters for six days at the Angel Island Immigration Station in San Francisco Bay. Her father had immigrated to Oakland in 1912.
She and her family settled in Oakland’s Chinatown. She attended Lincoln Elementary School and Oakland Technical High School. In 1950, she received her teaching credentials from the University of California, Berkeley.
She started teaching in 1950 in the Mt. Eden School District, an unincorporated area of Alameda County near Hayward, then at the Decoto School District, and finally at the New Haven Unified School District in what is now Union City, a total of 33 years. Primarily a second-grade instructor, she was the first Chinese American teacher in all those districts.
After retirement, she took a writing course taught by Nancy O’Connell at Chabot Junior College, Hayward. O’Connell and her fellow students encouraged her to write a memoir about her immigration experience.
Her memoir, Good Fortune: My Journey to Gold Mountain, was published by Peachtree Publishers, Atlanta GA, in 2006, when she was 80 years old. She has spoken widely about her life story and book, locally and nationally. Her book is used in many middle schools.
For 47 years, she lived in San Leandro with her late husband, Roger L. Wong, who owned a plastics fabricating business. She is survived by two children, Stanton Kirby Wong, and Karen Weller; three grandchildren, Amanda Wong, Brian Weller, and Andrea Weller; and siblings Lai Wah Chop Webster, Nellie Wong, Flo Oy Wong, and William Gee Wong, and many nieces and nephews.
In 2011, she moved into Piedmont Gardens in Oakland. Her affinity for Oakland Chinatown remained strong. “You can take Li Keng out of Chinatown, but you can’t take Chinatown out of Li Keng,” she said in retirement.
Memorial services and entombment will take place at 10 a.m., Friday, August 17, 2018, at Chapel of the Chimes, 4499 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611, followed by a celebration-of-life luncheon at Peony Seafood Restaurant, 388 9th Street, Suite 288, Oakland CA 94607, 510-286-8866, http://peony388.com.
The family requests that in lieu of flowers, donations be made in Li Keng Gee Wong’s honor to the Angel Island Immigration Foundation, www.aiisf.org., 870 Market St., Suite 941, San Francisco CA 94102, 415-658-7691.
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