Sookkyung Jung Chae's Obituary
Sookkyung Jung Chae, age 86, passed away in Oakland, California, after a struggle with RSV-induced pneumonia on New Year's Eve 2026. Like her husband who died over 30 years prior, her journey spanned an enormous sweep of time and place.
At the outbreak of the Korean War when she was 10 years old, her family escaped from northern to southern Korea in a cart pulled by a donkey. In order to survive, she later recalled, she hunted for potatoes in farm fields to feed herself and her two brothers.
Her parents were part of the generation that grew up during the Japanese occupation of Korea.
Her father was a teacher in a one-room school in the countryside town of Bubeck, northern Korea. After WWII and the end of the Japanese occupation, he became a business man in Pyongyang, then a major city where there was a confluence of American missionaries. There he started a rubber shoe factory, and travelled from village to village selling shoes.
Her mother was a religious organizer and Presbyterian women's group leader who never finished high school. She held bible study gatherings that were known far and wide in Pyongyang. Due to the feudal family structure, her mother assumed responsibility for caring for a relative's family. Sookkyung later recalled how even as a young child, she recognized the injustice and once feigned sickness for a week to get her mother to come home.
As a student in the newly partitioned South Korea, she earned a master's degree in social work in gerontology at Ewha University, Korea's first educational institution for women.
Meanwhile she met her future husband, Soo Bong, who tutored her younger brothers in all subjects. After he studied abroad as a scholar in the United States for a number of years, he returned to Korea to ask for her hand in marriage. They emigrated together to Rochester, New York.
Their fates merged and they embarked on a journey chasing opportunities. They travelled to Brazil where he earned his PhD and they had a son, Dusan. Then they returned to Rochester before finally settling in Florida where he landed a professorship, and they had a daughter, Nabin.
In Florida, Sookkyung dedicated herself to family life. Eventually hidden talents emerged. She developed an interest in arts and crafts after apprenticing with a local craftsman and jewelry store owner. She made feather jewelry, leather bags and sandals, and won many Best in Show awards at local arts and craft events. And she was known to be a phenomenal cook although in the first few years in Florida, Korean ingredients were hard to find.
Eventually she returned to school and worked for over 20 years as a social worker for the elderly. Her plans to return to Korea to renew past connections and seek higher education opportunities were dashed when her husband fell ill and later passed away.
She was a committed member of the United Methodist church, and attended English and Korean congregations. She continued to be involved as a regional leader of United Methodist Women in Faith well into her 80s.
While Sookkyung yearned to be part of a community and to contribute, belonging in Florida was elusive. Between two worlds, she felt the Korean community side was provincial, and the greater society lacked reverence and traditional values. But she maintained a sunny disposition, inner-confidence, and belief for something better around the corner. And true to her nature, she always retained a sense of longing for the homeland.
In the final year of her life, Sookkyung left her home in Florida to stay with her son in Oakland, California. She made several friends in the Korean community, and was in the process of making plans to enjoy a fresh start in life.
She is survived by her son, Dusan; her daughter, Nabin; and her two younger brothers, Mong and Uk.
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