Heung Seto Ong

August 6, 1930 – September 15, 2026

Heung Seto Ong, 96, of Phoenix and Irvine, California, passed away peacefully at home on September 15, 2026.

She was born Seto Tui Heung in the village of Hong May Lay in Kaiping, China, to Szeto Yue Wei, a schoolteacher, and Ong Toy Lin. With only two and a half years of schooling, she was raising her infant brother and youngest sister by age nine, and she survived the Japanese occupation, wartime famine, and the Communist revolution. At 23 she fled her village, and in 1954 she reached Hong Kong.

In 1963 she married Jimmy S. Ong, owner of Fairway Market in Phoenix, and arrived in Arizona in 1964. Their son, Kenneth, was born in 1967. In 1973 the family settled in Maryvale, next door to her sister Yin Tai, with a gate in the backyard fence between them. She lived there for 47 years.

Determined to reunite her family, Heung spent decades navigating American immigration law, with help from Senator Barry Goldwater's office, to bring her sisters, brother, nephew, and their families to Phoenix. She worked as a seamstress, grew vegetables to give away, and was known for her cooking, especially her dim sum and banana-leaf rice dumplings. She was also a devoted fan of John Cena. In 2020 she moved to Irvine to live with her son's family, where she remained resilient and cheerful to the end.

She was preceded in death by her husband of nearly 40 years, Jimmy; her first husband, Tam Joe Ji; her parents; sisters Chi Tai Cheung, Cui Huan Tan, and Yin Tai "May" Lam; brother Shao Tang Situ; and stepdaughter Linda Mah.

She is survived by her son, Kenneth Ong (Anne Bui); grandchildren Katherine and Ryan Ong; stepson Harry Som (Bynn Yang); cousin Chok Yee Lau; five step-grandchildren, four step-great-grandchildren, and one step-great-great-grandchild; and many relatives in the United States and China.

The family is deeply grateful to Hoag Hospital and Hoag Medical Group, the staff of Regents Point – Windcrest in Irvine, and her devoted caregiver, Rosaline Simorangkir.

Visitation will be held Saturday, October 10, 2026, from 8:30 to 9 a.m., followed by a funeral service at 9 a.m., in the Mortuary Chapel at Greenwood Memory Lawn Cemetery, 719 N. 27th Ave., Phoenix. A committal service will follow at 10:30 a.m. in the cemetery's Chinese Memorial Garden, 2300 W. Van Buren St., Phoenix.