Thompson Harman Funeral Home
Henryetta Young Fong, 100, passed away quietly at her home in Middletown, MD, on August 24, 2024.
She was born in Hanford, CA, on March 16, 1924, but by age 3 was on a boat to China with her family (excepting her oldest brothers, who were grown); the parents wanted their younger children to "learn how to be Chinese." A few months after delivering her children to the family village in Guangzhou province, her mother returned to her husband in Hanford, taking only her infant son Phillip. Henyretta's brothers were soon sent off to boarding school,
and the little sister was left behind to study in a makeshift school for girls taught by her sister-in-law. Henryetta would not see her mother again until, during the Japanese invasion, she returned to Hanford in 1938. By this time, she was 14. She attended school in Hanford, eventually graduating from Hanford High School around 1942. She then spent a few semesters at Visalia Junior College but afterwards decided to go back to China for a visit, which became a stint at Lingnan University. On an outing in Guangdong, she was stopped by officials who demanded identification cards, and it was only her Hanford Library card, confirming her American connection, that saved her from arrest.
With Mao Zedong's Communists now enroute, she returned to California. Her brother Charles helped finance her business studies at Armstrong College in Berkeley. At a masquerade party in 1948, she met a young U.C. Berkeley student of forensic sciences, Wilkaan Fong, and the two were married on July 9, 1950. They eventually had three children, Jerry, Steve, and Cindy.
Henryetta would follow Wilkaan around to his various criminalist jobs, first to Madison, WI, then briefly to Pittsburgh, PA, then to North St. Paul, MN for about eight years, and finally to San Jose, CA, where the family moved in 1967. When her youngest child, Cindy, went off to college, Henryetta resumed to her childbirth-interrupted education and finally obtained her accounting degree at San Jose City College in 1978, at the age of 54. She went on to work as a City of San Jose accounting clerk - a reportedly very popular one! -- for the next ten years.
When both Wilkaan and Henryetta had finally retired, they spent a few years traveling, then ultimately sold their home in San Jose and in 2003 relocated to a house near their son Steve in Middletown, MD.
During these many years, Henryetta was, among other things, a beloved volunteer in the Presbyterian church in North St. Paul and in various Chinese American civic organizations in San Jose; a Cub Scout den mother; and an expert guide for her daughter's 4-H sewing projects. She created magnificent gardens in three different states, could famously get the best bargains at any department store, and had uncanny luck with the stock market. Her love for her family was always steadfast and overflowing. Even at age 100, she would check to make sure you were warm enough.
She is survived by her three aforementioned children, Jerry, Steve, and Cindy, and her three grandchildren, Luann, Liann, and Sherwin.
A Memorial Service will be held on Saturday, August 31, 2024 at 10:00 AM in Middletown United Methodist Church, 7108 Fern Court, Middletown, MD 21769. Interment private.
In lieu of flowers, contributions in her name may be made to Middletown United Methodist Church at the above address.
Arrangements entrusted to Thompson Harman Funeral Home, Middletown.
LINKS
Frederick News-Post Memoriams
http://www.fredericknewspost.com
Memories
Gallery
Guestbook