[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 27 (Monday, February 12, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Page S869]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING FONG GAY LEON WU

 Ms. DUCKWORTH. Mr. President, today I wish to pay tribute to 
the remarkable life of Fong Gay Leon Wu, who passed away peacefully on 
January 24, 2018.
  Fong Gay Leon Wu was born in a village in Guangdong, China, in the 
early 1920s. She was the first female in her large extended family to 
finish her secondary education. This was not a common practice in China 
in those days because girls were not generally allowed to go to school.
  Subsequently, she married Yung Chi and settled to care for her new 
family during very turbulent times in China. She survived the Chinese 
civil war and the rise of the Communist Party. In 1949, her new family 
was facing increasingly belligerent villagers. Motivated by the 
presence of imminent danger to her family and armed with courage, 
strength, and ingenuity, she led her infant daughter and mother-in-law 
out of their fratricidal home village in the early days of communism in 
China, narrowly escaping death. Fong Gay and her family fled Guangdong 
to a safe haven in Hong Kong, where they were protected by family and 
friends, until she was able to rejoin her husband and start a new life 
in Santiago de Cuba. In her new home in Cuba, she gave birth to her 
second daughter.
  Shortly after the Cuban Revolution succeeded in 1959, she recognized 
signs of communism in the early days of Castro's Cuba and once again 
planned her family's escape from a communist regime. With her family in 
tow, Fong Gay Leon Wu arrived to the United States.
  Her indomitable spirit, her strength, and her courage, which she has 
shown throughout her life, helped the family forge a new life here in 
the United States. Twice in her life, she had to start all over again, 
with little or nothing but the clothes on her back. Although raised as 
a child of privilege, Fong Gay was not afraid of hard work and 
challenges. She was dedicated to the ideals of America, most 
importantly to the importance of freedom, because she experienced 
firsthand what it meant to live under a regime that limited freedom. In 
those early days after she arrived with her family in the United 
States, even though she could not speak English, she helped supplement 
the family income by helping with a family business startup in Chicago 
and later by working in the garment industry in New York City's 
Chinatown.
  After overcoming countless hardships and challenges throughout her 
life, Fong Gay never lost her big heart. Her love for her family and 
courage on their behalf has set an example for us all and especially 
for her daughters and granddaughters, each of whom has followed her 
lead and committed herself to a life and career of service. Her spirit 
and warmth will be missed.

                          ____________________