Mrs. Michon Smith Wong

Mrs. Wong retired from the Hamilton County and Chattanooga City public school systems. After beginning her career as a social studies teacher at Hardy Junior High School in 1969, she served as an assistant principal there and later at Howard, Lookout Valley and East Ridge High Schools.

After her retirement in 2001, she pursued a career in photography arts, receiving numerous awards in juried shows. In 2008, her work was presented in a one-person show at the Tennessee Art League Gallery in Nashville. Her artwork is currently on display at the Chattanooga In-town Gallery, where she was a member, and the Bates Florist & Raintree Fine Art Gallery in East Brainerd. Mrs. Wong received her undergraduate degree from Tennessee Wesleyan College in Athens, TN in 1969. She earned a masters degree in education from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in 1971, and later did post-graduate work in sociology at the University of Florida in Gainesville. She and her parents were prominent for many years in Chattanooga Democratic Party politics, and Mrs. Wong was especially proud of actively campaigning for President John F. Kennedy when she was 13 years old.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. Yeu Quang Wong of East Ridge, and her parents, Clarence and Ruth Hyde Smith of Chattanooga.

She is survived by her children, Cynthia Wong-Lippe of Long Island, NY, and Leo Wong of Jersey City, NJ; brother and sister-in-law, Jay and Betty Smith of Chattanooga; niece Lisa Smith Hazelwander of Chattanooga; nephew Mark Smith of Chattanooga; and many other relatives and friends.

The family will have a viewing at the Chattanooga Funeral Home, East Chapel, on South Moore Road on Friday 13, 2010 between 4:00 PM and 8:00 PM. A memorial service will be held graveside at 10:00 AM at the Greenwood Cemetery on Missionary Ridge with a procession leaving from the Chattanooga Funeral Home at 9:15 AM. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to The Hospice of Chattanooga Foundation at 4411 Oakwood Drive; P.O. Box 19269, Chattanooga, TN 37416. Please share your condolences at www.MeM.com.