Dorothy Chock – 1916
Dorothy Kam Mew Chock was born on 25 August 1897 in Hanalei to Chock Chin and Hee Shee (2nd Chinese wife). She was the 2nd child, having an older sister named Katherine Kam Ho Chock, born in 1896. My father, George Goon Fong Chock was born two years later in 1899. Two more brothers joined the family: Kuan-Ying Chock in 1901, and Kuan-Chieh Chock in 1903.
Dorothy was to outlive all of her full siblings (the children born to her mother). Fortunately she had a great memory and was a good storyteller, and her excellent journal/memoir chronicles the Chock Chin household, and how it felt to grow up in the Chock Chin household in those fascinating years in Hanalei history. Her memories were woven into the family history that her half-sister Nee Chang (daughter of 3rd Chinese wife, Chun Shee) compiled for the Pioneer Families of Kauai history that I am using as a source on this blog.
She and her sister Katherine and my father spent four years in China in the care of Chou Shee (1st Chinese wife) when an unidentified epidemic swept through the island in 1905 and took the lives of their two little brothers (Kuan-Ying and Kuan-Chieh) and their mother, Hee Shee. Spiritual leaders instructed Chock Chin to take his remaining children — particularly his heir, my father — and flee the island because evil spirits were seeking to destroy them. He took them home to China for safety, and to find a new wife. He chose Chun Shee, the 3rd Chinese wife (and last wife). He left the three little children there to ensure their survival, and sailed back to Hanalei with his new young wife.
Chou Shee cared for them until her death in 1909, at which point the family arranged to send them back to their father in Hanalei. Since she was eight years old when her mother died and they sailed for China, Dorothy was old enough to remember these events, and had some riveting tales to tell about their adventures there. I’ll write more about them in another post.
She married Sau Yee Chang in Lihue in 1921, and he worked as a dentist in Waimea for many years. They raised a beautiful family of three daughters and a son. The first two daughters were identical twins — Kathleen and Katherine) and they thoroughly enjoyed dressing them alike through their childhood years.
Dorothy and Sau Yee had a long, happy life together.
They both passed away in 1990 — Dorothy on 22 February, and Sau Yee on 13 September.
You can visit their grave at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific Honolulu, Honolulu County,Hawaii, USA, PLOT O 260-A
Family Search
Learn more about the Chang family by exploring the family tree of Sau Yee Chang here.