June Owyang

June Owyang passed away peacefully at home in San Diego, California on February 6, 2025 at the age of 83. June was born Ching-Ling Tong on August 9, 1941 in Shanghai, China, as the youngest child of Ching-Hsien Tong and Lee-Chuan Yih, and moved with them to Singapore when she was six. She attended Marymount Convent School in Singapore for both her primary and secondary education, before studying art and earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Adelphi University in Garden City, New York, in 1963. On her return to Singapore, June met and married Hsuan Owyang, a banker with the Overseas Union Bank in Singapore, in 1967. The couple welcomed their two children in 1968 and 1969.

June had a keen eye for fashion and design since her school days, and successfully balanced her work in a women’s clothing boutique in the early 70s with being a loving mother. Her entrepreneurial spirit led her to open “Hawaiiana”, a boutique specializing in Hawaiian women’s fashion in the mid-1970s. She followed up that success with another boutique, Lorenzio, in the early eighties, focusing on high-end European women’s fashion. June’s elegance and refined taste shone through not only in her business ventures, but also in in her homemaking and everyday life.

For almost three decades, June was an active and dedicated member of the “Sewing Group” in Singapore, which started as a gathering of expatriate and local women who met once a week at a member’s home to “sew and chat”, but has since developed into a tight-knit group with life-long friendships and sisterhood at its core. She also enjoyed competitive bowling, and loved to travel with her family. June and Hsuan retired to San Diego in 2008 to be closer to their children. June will always be remembered for her elegance, generosity, and consideration for others.

June is survived by her son Todd, daughter Sharon, and son-in-law Tom Hugh-Jones; as well as her sister Jeanne Yeh of Honolulu, and Alice Woo of Toronto.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St Jude’s Children Research Hospital, or the Parkinson’s Foundation.