Lien Yao Hill

Loquats, kumquats, pomelos, meyer lemons, pomegranates, guavas, persimmons, red apples, figs, grapes, and jujubes. Over 48 years, Lien somehow grew all of these trees — plus roses, tropical flowers, and vegetables — at her modest Burbank home. Her garden was her little bit of Eden, and a reflection of everything she was: generous, patient, life-giving, and deeply rooted in love.

Lien Yao Hill, born December 2, 1945 in Beijing, China, passed away on May 31, 2026 in Burbank, California, surrounded by her beloved husband, daughter, and son.

She came into the world as the youngest of eighteen children, born to a renowned physician and pharmaceutical inventor whose compassion for the poor and the sick defined his life’s work. In 1948, when Lien was just three years old, the end of the Chinese civil war upended everything her family had known. They emigrated to Taiwan, leaving all material possessions behind — carrying instead what could never be taken: their faith, their hope, and one another. The family patriarch, her hero and father, passed away from illness in 1951, just years after their arrival. She was too young to have known him long, but she carried him always.

She was raised by her devoted mother and found in her older brothers the steady presence of a father, and in her sisters the warmth of caregivers and guides. Her happiest childhood memories were simple and luminous: climbing fruit trees with her siblings, eating directly from the branches, laughing in the open air. That joy never left her. It took root, grew branches, and bore fruit for the rest of her life.

In 1961, Lien encountered LDS missionaries in Taiwan and embraced the Gospel of Jesus Christ with her whole heart. So complete was her conviction that she became a full-time missionary herself from 1966 to 1967. She then pursued her education at Brigham Young University, where she met a shy and handsome young man named Douglas, who would tutor her — and whom she would love for the rest of her life. They were married in the Los Angeles Temple in 1972 and built a home and family together, welcoming two children, Elaine and Brian.

Her devotion to faith, family, and the preservation of memory only deepened with time. In 2000, she founded and led the Overseas Chinese Latter-Day Saints Pioneers Association, guided by a mission “to encourage the preservation and sharing of the personal and family histories of Overseas Chinese LDS pioneers, and to build community among themselves and their posterity for generations to come.” Over the following decades, she gathered more than 250 members, organized eight reunions, and led an international trip to China — stitching together a community bound by shared heritage and shared belief.

Her life was one of planting, nurturing, and cultivation — in every sense. She saw the light in people, and she had a gift for turning strangers into friends. Just as freely as she gave away fruit from her many trees to neighbors and loved ones, she shared her faith with anyone who would listen. In her later years, her garden became her sanctuary — a place of quiet communion with God, and a return, in its own way, to those sunlit trees of her childhood. Every bloom she tended, every fruit she pressed into someone else’s hands, was an act of love.

Her earthly life was a garden. And through it, she helped all of us feel a little closer to God.

Founder and President, Overseas Chinese Latter-Day Saints Pioneers Association, 2000–2026

LDS Missionary, 1966–1967

Proud daughter of Yao Hong Sheng (姚鴻聲) and Zheng Chiao Fang (鄭秋芳)

Devoted wife to Douglas Liddell Hill

Loving mother to Elaine and Brian

Cherished friend to many

Beloved child of our Father in Heaven

Please visit Overseas Chinese LDS Pioneers Association Page:

https://chinesepioneers.org/yao-lien-obituary/