Minnie Yee Wong

Her large immediate and extended family mourns the loss of Minnie Yee Wong , who died aged 91 September 24, 2024, after a brief illness. The youngest daughter of Chinese immigrants Toon Ark “Howard” and Get Fong Yee – the first China-born couple in Akron to become American citizens – Mrs. Wong was the last surviving member of a family of seven children. She lived a long, productive and happy life marked by a 68-year marriage, a cherished immediate and extended family, hard work dutifully done, volunteering, and her well-known devotion to her family, friends, employers and customers.

Mrs. Wong began life as the fourth daughter in a family of seven children (one elder brother died young). Her parents had owned and operated a laundry on West Exchange Street and later at 90 West Market Street, before the Innerbelt’s construction led to its closure in 1972.  Prior to the Yees moving to their home on Highland Avenue, they had lived above the laundry on West Exchange Street and walked to the Calvary Baptist Church on South Maple Street. From childhood, she had worked in the laundry after school, telling the Akron Beacon Journal in 1979 that “We had a lot of customers, mostly businessmen in town and people from the west side….All of us children were usually there, too, helping run the business. It was the type of operation you couldn’t do all by yourself.” The Beacon Journal featured her parents on the front page on November 21, 1951, after they had taken their oaths as new American citizens.

She graduated from West High School (Class of 1950) and earned her bachelor’s degree in medical technology from Kent State University. She launched her career as a medical technologist at Akron General Hospital before marrying Air Force veteran and engineer Hip Wong in Akron’s First Presbyterian Church. The newlyweds moved to New Jersey for several years for his job, before returning to Akron to run her parents’ laundry. She continued working as a medical technologist in New Jersey through the birth of her first child, and later became a hematologist with Akron General Hospital after closing the laundry. She retired in 1997. Her years of retirement were marked by quality time spent with her family and friends, helping to create books in Braille for the blind, regular golf outings with the Daffy Duffers, making endless delicious meals for her family, enjoying time in Florida, and traveling the country to see her siblings, in-laws, cousins, nieces and nephews.

She was the matriarch of a large immediate family whose welcoming home and table were a hub of activity, drawing her loved ones and their friends in for meals, games of Mah-Jong and cards, classic movie nights, children’s games, long discussions, laughter and the comfortable fellowship to be found in a home whose hallmarks are lovingkindness and generosity. Mrs. Wong participated in all these activities even as she cooked, baked, and served heaping portions of her special recipes of Chinese food, urging all present to eat regardless of their hunger levels! For her, food and a home light always burning were the means to the end of gathering her loved ones together, so that their family around the table would (and did) foster ties of love, trust and reliance that would grow from childhood to adulthood, extend to their wider family and friends, and last throughout their lives.

Mrs. Wong leaves to remember her wonderful life and delightful personality: her husband, Hip Chu Wong; five children, Barbara (Wayne) Gipson, David (Amy) Wong, Michael Wong (Sharon Stutler), Kathy (Matt) MacLean, and Amy (Todd) Scott; grandchildren Benjamin (Megan) and Collin (Megan) Scott, Alyssa (Josh) Malezi, Chad Gipson (Jazmine Santiago), Lauren Scott (Casper Tavenor), Jared Gipson (Bobbi Rhodes), Jessica Wong, Nicholas and Alex Wong, and Trenton MacLean; her great-grandchildren, Jude and Josie Malezi, Hudson, Owen and Jack Scott, and a Gipson on the way; and her “double niece” Janice (Robert) Rothschild, and great-nephews, Harrison and Jonah Rothschild. Mrs. Wong also leaves brothers- and sisters-in-law: Gloria Wong, Fue Lun Wong Hom, Nim (Oy) Wong; Neun Wong; Elizabeth Yee; and many nieces, nephews and great-nieces and great-nephews who stayed in close touch with her from their homes around the world.

The fact that nearly every one of the above relatives connected with her via phone, email, Facetime and letters on a regular basis – including during the last days of her life – is a testament to Mrs. Wong’s commitment to maintaining ties with her loved ones regardless of distance, time zones and age differences.

She was predeceased by her parents, her elder sisters Mary Yee (Charles) Lee, Margaret Yee (Wing Kee) Wong and Maxine Yee (Ray) Seeto, her elder brother William, her younger brothers Harry (Fue Lane) and Roy Yee, her sister-in-law Helen Graeff, and her brothers-in-law, Wee Chu Wong and Philip Hom. The happy memories Mrs. Wong made with her family and friends will serve as a reminder of her endearing personality and sense of humor, productive, happy life, valued friendship and strong faith.

Friends may call at the Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel on WEDNESDAY, Oct. 2, 2024, from 4 pm to 8 pm and/or attend a service to celebrate Mrs. Wong’s life at 11 am on THURSDAY, Oct. 3, also at the Billow FAIRLAWN Chapel, 85 N. Miller Rd. Fairlawn, OH 44333. Pastor Charles Cooper will lead the service. Inurnment will take place at a later date at the Ohio Western Reserve National Cemetery.

The service will also be livestreamed on the Billow Funeral Homes Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/BillowFuneralHomes/

Should friends wish to remember her, the family encourages them to give to First Tee Akron (https://firstteeakron.org/), St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (https://www.stjude.org/), or the Tunnels to Towers Foundation (https://t2t.org/).

Services in care of The Billow Funeral Homes & Crematory, Fairlawn Chapel, 85 N Miller Road, Akron, OH  44333.