Anne Kuo (陳恩頤)

Anne En-Yi Kuo (陳恩頤), 94, of Chicago, Illinois, passed away on 28 March 2026. The oldest daughter of Chen Zhi-tian (陳支天) and Liu Xi-jing (劉希璟), Anne was born on the eleventh day of the fifth lunar month in 1931 in Fuzhou, China. She was six years old when war broke out against Japan, and the family spent eight years fleeing across China to escape the Japanese invasion. After the Allied victory in 1945, the Communists and the Nationalists continued their civil war to gain control of China. Anne was in high school at this point, and her teachers took her senior class on a pre-graduation trip to Taiwan. It was during her stay in Taiwan that the Communists completed their takeover of China, and Anne did not see her family again for thirty years, until China started opening to the West in 1979.

In 1957, in Taiwan, Anne married Chen Kuo, who had completed graduate studies at the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill on a Rockefeller Foundation Fellowship. In 1960 he joined the United Nations, and the young couple was posted to the Eastern Mediterranean region, where their daughter, Patricia, and later, their son, Chuin, were born. Later, after two more wars, the family immigrated to Toronto, Canada, where Anne raised two children single-handedly due to Chen’s frequent travel, while also working full-time as an accountant at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce. In 2020, she moved in with her daughter in Geneva, Switzerland; and in 2025 she moved to Chicago, IL, to be closer to her son.

A highly accomplished craftsperson, Anne handknit her children’s and granddaughter’s sweaters, crocheted bedspreads, folded origami figures to give away to friends, and made flowers out of silk ribbon. An avid gardener, Anne grew flowers and kept a yard that were the envy of the neighborhood. An outstanding cook, Anne did all the cooking when she and Chen hosted dinner parties for 20 guests. A keen qigong practitioner, Anne belonged to a group of like-minded practitioners that met every Sunday morning in a Toronto park to do breathing and movement exercises and meditation. And a devoted mother and grandmother, Anne made sure there was everyone’s favorite pot roast bubbling on the stove whenever her children and granddaughter came home to visit.

Anne’s love for her children and granddaughter was boundless; she was a tireless advocate of her family no matter what the situation. She loved to travel and learn about other cultures; and in her 80s, she picked up enough French to waggle her fingers and say “comme ci, comme ça” in the best Gallic way.

She will be very much missed by Patricia and Chuin (Linda) and by her granddaughter Alexandra (Mathieu).

If you would like to pass along condolences to the family, please leave a comment below, or reach out to Anne's children at:

Patricia Kuo [email protected]

Chuin Kuo [email protected]