Kap Soon Lee

After a difficult nearly three-year battle with pancreatic cancer, Kap Soon “Bona” Lee passed away peacefully on July 11 surrounded by her loved ones. Cancer had ravaged her body, but she remained undaunted in the face of pain and complications from the disease. Her mind was sharp, her spirit indomitable, and her wit sparkling until the very end.

Kap Soon was born on January 26, 1944 in Seoul to Duk Nam and In Nam Choi; her birth was long-awaited by her parents and celebrated with tremendous joy. As the first child, she was feted, doted upon, and lavished with great attention by her parents. From first-born, Kap Soon became the oldest of the family of six children and took on the role of big sister and her mother’s right hand. In her bustling home, she learned management skills and moral virtues, especially generosity. Daily meals were labor intensive orchestrations of organizational genius – the quantities of rice, fish, seaweed, vegetables to be procured, prepared and cooked every day were astounding. Holiday celebrations were multi-day, large scale complex operations, where it was about showcasing her mother’s culinary delights, sharing with their numerous aunts, uncles, and cousins as well as offering to their neighbors the bounty and blessing of the feast. In the bosom of her warm, loving family, Kap Soon grew her giving spirit and the virtue of having a “big hand”.

The burgeoning city of Seoul was her stomping ground in the 1960s. With high school girlfriends and university classmates, Kap Soon kept up with the latest fashions, watched the newly released movies, and devoured the newest must-read modern novels being published. Whether experimenting with new bobbed hairstyles or just having old-fashioned fun skating on the Han River, Kap Soon tasted some of the freedoms offered by growing up in Seoul. As an original “Seoul person”, she stayed a city girl at heart having imbibed Seoul tastes, speech, and customs from early on.

Thanks to the skillful matchmaking of her best friend from university, she met her future husband, Jae Hoon Lee, a talented, smart young man studying engineering at Seoul National University. After graduating from Sookmyung Women’s University in 1967, Kap Soon worked for a few years as a schoolteacher and then married Jae Hoon in 1970. The couple would soon welcome a daughter (Jee Sun) and son (Jee Hang) into the world. In search of better opportunities for their children and to join her brother who had established himself in America, she and Jae Hoon moved along with her parents and siblings halfway across the world where they started a new life in California.

From 1977-2003, Kap Soon called San Jose home. Supported by her large family and anchored in the fellowship of the Korean-Catholic community, Kap Soon worked tirelessly to bring home a paycheck, manage the household, and raise their two children. Having found employment everywhere from the Humdinger Hamburgers to Motorola to running their own small business, Say Cheese Deli, Kap Soon weaved together a fulfilling home and communal life. Well-respected for her discernment, moral strength, and ability to thread the needle, she became a pillar of that San Jose Korean community.

To be close to their children on the East Coast, Kap Soon and Jae Hoon moved to Mclean, Virginia in 2003. Using McLean as their home base, she spent the next 17 years living and travelling all over the globe, as she became an integral part of a diplomatic family. With her daughter, son-in-law, and grandchildren, Kap Soon lived for five years in Seoul, three years in Paris, France, and in Brussels, Belgium. Throughout this period overseas, Kap Soon was able to enjoy her retirement by spending time with grandchildren, exploring new places, and returning to her city roots. In Seoul, she reconnected with her close friends from childhood and cultivated her painting and shopping skills. In Paris, she had a fabulous time making friends with Korean-French ladies, visiting cathedrals with her husband, and exploring the boulangeries and chocolate shops with her grandchildren. In Brussels, Kap Soon enjoyed the quieter, greener pace of life in Belgium and relished her travels to the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, Greece, and Croatia.

Upon her return to Virginia in 2020, Kap Soon loved her time being a devoted grandmother to her five grandchildren. Helping to raise and watching her grandchildren grow, flourish, and mature swelled her heart with pride. At swim meets, soccer matches, and orchestra concerts, Kap Soon was their biggest, most boisterous supporter, bolstering spirits with her radiant positivity, unfaltering encouragement, and gentle exhortations. She was the rock of her family.

Kap Soon is survived by her husband of 56 years, Jae Hoon, their children Jee Sun and Jee Hang, and their five grandchildren as well as her five siblings in California, brothers Kyung Sun Choi and Man Gene Choi and sisters Man Gil Cho, Man Keum Tuggle, and Min Soon Song. A funeral mass will be held at the Saint John the Beloved Catholic Church of McLean at 12 pm on July 21, 2026.