Jean Hwa Lee

Her tranquil passing was in blessed contrast to the turbulence of her early life. Born into a Korea that was then a colony of Japan, she found purpose and fulfillment in academic pursuits, graduating from university at the very top of her class and winning a coveted scholarship offer to study medicine or law at Nihon University. Sun Lee, a medical student at what is now Seoul National University, found her and her accomplishments irresistible, and they were engaged as WWII drew to a close. As a harbinger of turmoil to come, air raid sirens interrupted their wedding ceremony, forcing guests to scramble for shelter as the young couple struggled to finish their vows.

The years immediately following the war’s end saw the birth of William and then Gloria. Jean encouraged her husband to accept the rare offer of a medical residency in America. She was to follow him once he had gotten settled, but the Korean War broke out a few months after he left. Control of Seoul repeatedly flip-flopped between North and South, with each side carrying out bloody retributions when in power. As the wife of a man who was studying in the U.S., she was marked for execution when the North temporarily had the upper hand. A brave neighbor who'd been present when the list of targets was drawn ran ahead of the death squad to warn her just in time.

With superhuman determination, and luck that she attributed to divine intervention, she and her children survived the war and its aftermath. Eventually she was able to reunite with her husband to begin life together in America. Four more children followed, replacing the chaos of war with the barely less challenging chaos of raising six boisterous children in a land with strange customs, food, and language. She handled it all with loving grace.

Daughters Marlene Carneiro of New York, Janet Lee and Donna Kirch of San Diego; son Thomas Lee of Palo Alto; and five grandchildren survive Jean, the beloved heroine of the Lee family. She was predeceased by her eldest children, William Lee and Gloria Yim; and her husband of 70 years, Dr. Sun Lee.