Esther was born Esther Mary Lee (Lee Pan Quon) on Dec 14, 1932 in East Chicago, Indiana. Her parents, Raymond and Pearl Lee (nee Wong), had immigrated from China as children, were educated in the US and wed through a traditional arranged marriage. Ray and Pearl lived in East Chicago, Indiana at the family laundry owned by Ray’s mother, and it was in this laundry where Esther was born. They all lived together in a portion of the building behind the laundry with Ray’s parents and his brother Charles, along with Charles’ family of 7 children.  Esther started out sorting dirty socks and eventually advanced to ironing dress shirts. 

When Esther was about 10, Pearl and Ray divorced. Pearl and Esther moved to Gross Point, MI where  Pearl met and married Chin Soon.  The family then moved to Detroit and started a restaurant.  Esther attended high school in Detroit, where she was a cheerleader, played basketball, and enjoyed horseback riding while also helping at the restaurant.

As a teenager, Esther spent time visiting cousins in Texas, where she met her future husband, Howard Wong. 

After Esther completed High School, she left Michigan and moved to California where she attended Long Beach City College. She started training to become a dental assistant, but ultimately earned a business certificate. She worked at the Long Beach Bank of America in the Loans department.  When the need arose for a teller fluent in Cantonese for the San Francisco branch, she was transferred to Chinatown.

Throughout this time, Esther and Howard stayed in touch, with Howard writing her almost daily during his training with the Air Force. While on leave between duty assignments, Howard went to Detroit to ask Pearl for permission to marry Esther, who was home on vacation from San Francisco. Pearl consented and they were married by the justice of the peace. Pearl gave Howard $500, which Esther joked was a payoff for him to take her off Pearl's hands.

Howard and Esther lived briefly at Webb AFB in Big Springs, until Howard left the military to pursue his degree in Architecture from UT Austin. After that, they moved to San Antonio where Howard eventually started his own practice, which Esther helped establish by working as his secretary and office manager, a role she continued until they both retired.

Esther and Howard had 4 children: Marshall, Lenora, Howard and Kevan.  She was active in their school PTA, and was a Cub Scout Den Mother and Girl Scout leader during their early years.  She was a strict disciplinarian, holding strongly to traditional Chinese values while raising them, and she took great pride in their accomplishments.

Most recently, Esther found joy in her grandchildren and, especially, her great granddaughters.

Esther loved to travel and went all over the world with Howard. She was a great cook and loved to bake, always cutting out recipes and taping them to the fridge, on cabinets, or pinned to corkboard – along with a multitude of Helpful Hints from Heloise and other random articles snipped from the paper. Her other hobbies included reading (Reader’s Digest was a staple early on), crochet, origami, and calligraphy. In her younger days, she was an avid bowler – she and Howard playing weekly with the Chinese League for many years and by report, she was quite competitive. But Esther was truly a force to be reckoned with when she played Mah Joong. You could easily have your hand slapped for taking a tile out of turn or be met with a disapproving click of the tongue for taking too long to make a play.

Esther was not just a major figure among the Chinese, she was also involved in the local community.  She always civically minded and a “doer” – involved with and often serving in leadership roles for many different organizations including the Chinese American Citizen Alliance, Chinese Women’s Club, Chinese Community Council, and Chinese School; the National Association of Women in Construction; the Cancer Therapy and Research Center; and Dress for Success.

Esther is preceded in death by her sister Josephine Lee, sister Jean Ng, brother Richard Chin, and husband Howard Wong. She is survived by her son Marshall (Melodie) Wong , daughter Lenora (Kevin) Berning , son Howard (Mary) Wong , son Kevan Wong (Paul Rook), grandsons Jordan (Harley) Berning  and Alex Berning, granddaughter Mallory Wong, grandchildren Howard and Kieran Wong, great-granddaughters Bristol and Brooke Berning, sisters Ira Rae  Chin and Honey Aboushousheh.   

In lieu of gifts, donations can be made to the the National Kidney Foundation directly or via the link on this site.  

Thank you for the place you each held in our mom's life.  She was truly blessed by her many friendships.

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