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In memory of

John Lee

Little Neck, NY

January 23, 1938 - August 6, 2020

Jan 23, 1938 - Aug 6, 2020

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On August 6, 2020, John Lee, loving husband, father, and grandfather, passed away at the age of 82.

John was born in 1938 in Hong Kong, China. He came to the United States with his mother at the age of nine. He initially lived on Mulberry Street in Chinatown, New York. John quickly began his new life attending school and working with his mother every day after school and on weekends in a laundry, learning to iron, mend and do clothing alterations.

Soon after, John’s sisters, VieVon and Amy, came to the United States to live with them. John’s mother bought a laundry with an apartment in the back on Forsyth Street in lower Manhattan. The apartment was a “cold-water flat,” and had no heat or hot water. They boiled water for bathing. Eventually, they saved up money and installed a gas radiator in the kitchen to heat the apartment.

John was a gifted student, excelling in math and art; in middle school he was asked to draw three murals depicting American history in the school’s music room. According to John, his murals “included the Statue of Liberty and Francis Scott Key gazing at the American flag. The murals were displayed for years. My mother, however, thought art was a waste of time.” Even later in life, John was known for his artistic talent, especially for sketching horses, and helped with many art projects and endeavors by his children and grandchildren.

At age 11, John’s uncle, Guy Thom, suggested he work with him on Saturdays in the poultry market on South Street, where John started work at 4am for $10 a day. One of John’s main jobs was to perform the delicate work of removing the small feathers of ducks with tweezers without damaging the skin, which was necessary in order to sell the ducks to make roasted duck. Since John was not tall enough to reach the work area, he stood on a wooden milk crate his entire shift. At noon, John would go uptown to hand deliver the poultry to restaurants and private residences to earn tips, sometimes in the form of food from restaurants. He would finish work at 4pm, eat dinner with the other poultry market workers, and then walk home.

To earn extra money, John also helped his Uncle Guy pick up newspapers from various news companies and bring them to the post office on Church Street for delivery to other parts of the country. John would salvage a few newspapers each time and then sell them at the gambling dens in Chinatown at a significant markup.

At age 13, John’s mother became sick and had to be hospitalized for the long term. She loved to eat beef with bitter melon, so John often made it and brought it to her at the hospital. He began working at restaurants as a waiter to provide for himself and his two sisters. At his first restaurant job, he was the only waiter, and had to mop the floors twice a day, clean the bathroom, and wash all the dishes as well. He learned from the restaurant’s cook how to make some popular dishes. After that first restaurant job, he was able to get a better one at another Chinese restaurant, where he worked after school every day until 11 pm and on weekends.

Almost from the time John arrived in Chinatown, Italian kids picked on him. Once, as John was on his way to help Uncle Guy with the newspaper job, some Italian kids picked a fight with him on Mulberry Street and broke his nose. So at age 13, John started weight lifting. He got his first set of weights as a gift from Uncle Guy. He lifted weights throughout his life and even at age 82, lifted weights daily and could do 20 push ups.

John’s mother died when he was 17. John was devastated and dropped out of his senior year of high school. He went to Washington Irving High School at night to obtain his high school diploma. He began to gamble at a gambling house in Chinatown. During this time, he also became a skilled pool player and learned to dance the lindy while attending dances at social clubs. There, he perfected his own style of lindy and was known for his lindy dancing for the rest of his life.

In 1962, broke from gambling and seeking purpose, John “finally decided to change” his life and enlisted with the U.S. Army. “The night before I was to report to the recruiting office on Whitehall Street, I gambled all night and lost all my remaining money. In the morning, I packed a small duffle bag. I had one fifteen-cent token, which I used to take the bus to City Hall” and enlist. In the army, he was initially chosen to be a cook’s helper based on his experience cooking Chinese food during his years as a waiter. He then trained in radio communications and was stationed near Seoul, Korea, from 1962-63, helping to maintain radio communications throughout Korea in case of an invasion by North Korea. After Korea, John was stationed in Fort Hood, Texas, where he repaired radios.

After three years, John left the Army a new man. He was able to buy an apartment with the money he saved in the Army. He began dating his future wife, Rosemary Ng. They saw “Dr. Zhivago” on their first date. According to Rosemary, John won her parents’ favor with his ability to speak their dialect, Tai shan hua, and his affable personality. They married in 1968 and lived in Brooklyn.

The following year, John partnered with friends and opened D’oriental Restaurant on East 56th Street in Manhattan. They served Chinese food to many celebrities, including Elizabeth Taylor, Shirley Jones, Lucille Ball, Reggie Jackson, and Joe Namath. After years of working in and operating restaurants, among his family he is known for his Shrimp or Lobster Cantonese, spare ribs, and love of eating generally with his family and friends.

John and Rosemary moved to Little Neck, New York in the summer of 1972, where they continued to reside until John’s passing. After leaving the restaurant business in 1984, John reinvented himself as a successful real estate broker in northeastern Queens, New York, where he applied his deep knowledge of all things mechanical to understanding houses. Over the years, he frequently sold the same house multiple times through repeat business; he was known as trustworthy, knowledgeable and always helpful to his clients. He enjoyed his work immensely and was an active real estate broker until his passing.

He was most proud that he was able to put his daughters, Donna and Janet, through college and graduate school, and that they achieved the highest levels of education. Donna graduated from Cornell University and Columbia Law School, and Janet from Rochester University and the University of Pennsylvania Dental School.

In addition to his artistic and culinary talents, John was known for being adept at building and fixing things. He frequently tackled his own home repairs and those of his daughter Donna, serving as her trusted go-to electrician, plumber, and general contractor. Having learned to mend and alter clothing as a child, he was also the family’s in-house tailor.

John loved popular music from the 1950s and 60s, especially doo-wop tunes and songs by musicians such as Elvis, The Platters, Johnny Mathis and The Supremes, and instilled a love for the music he enjoyed so much in his children and grandchildren.

He is survived by his wife of 52 years, Rosemary; his two daughters; his five grandchildren, Lucas, Benett, Hudson, Autumn and Holden; and his sister VieVon.

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