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Kwong Dong Lau and Koon Hoong |
Koon Hoong Chung
Born: 06/06/1896, Honolulu, OA, Hawaii Died: 07/1975, Honolulu, OA, Hawaii Cause of Death: ??? Koon Hoong was the first born child to See Hin Chung and Kam Lan Tom. Since her parents were married in China on May 6, 1895, there is a very good chance that Kam Lan Tom was pregnant with Koon Hoong when she immigrated to Hawai'i. In fact, one thread of oral family history suggests that she was born on the ship as See Hin and Kam Lan voyaged to Hawai'i. Census data, however, states that Koon Hoong was born in Hawai'i. Koon Hoong was married twice. She married her first husband, Yin Sang Leong, when she was only 14 or 15 years of age. Yin Sang Leong was 23 years older than she. Although I cannot verify this, it seems that this may have been an arranged marriage. Chung/Ching and Leong/Leung are listed as surnames attached to the same ancestral village where See Hin Chung was born (On Ting). Koon Hoong had 9 children with Yin Sang Leong: Mable, Beatrice, Thelma, Albertina, Lurline, Winifred, Richard, Edwin and Ruth. The family lived in Chinatown, where Yin Sang Leong ran an herb store. The family did not have much, but they managed to survive. Her first husband, Yin Sang Leong, died suddenly and unexpectedly in 1935, when she was still raising her younger children. I'm sure that life became very hard for them at this time. I'm not sure when Koon Hoong married her second husband, Kwong Dong Lau. Her family has told me that he completely doted upon her and was madly in love with her until the end. He worked at the Chu Wo Tong drug store as a salesman, but his passion was acting in the Chinese theater. When Koon Hoong died in July of 1975, Kwong Dong Lau only survived a few months without her and passed in October of that same year. Koon Hoong, also known as "Auntie Tai Gu" and "Big Sister," has many descendants. Her portion of the family tree, easily comprises of over 1/2 of all of our Chung relatives. |