Kyong Cha Pak
March 7, 1923 - October 28, 2018
Obituary
Kyong Cha Pak passed away at the age of 95 on Sunday, October 28, 2018. She was born on March 7th, 1923 in a small country home in Korea in Ham Gyung Nam Do, Won Hung Lee City, which is now in North Korea. She was the last daughter of 8 children in her family. She had one older brother and 6 older sisters.
She was the first girl in her neighborhood to be able to attend school. After elementary school, she attended Ham Nam High School, which was a boarding school for girls. After graduating from high school, she became an elementary school teacher. She met and married Chi Gyun Pak, who was a graduate of Seoul University majoring in Chinese studies. After getting married, they moved to Seoul, Korea in 1943.
They had one son and one daughter. Her husband ran a successful trading company between Hong Kong and Korea. In 1950, the Korean War started. She and her husband took care of relatives who escaped from North Korea during the war. She took care of many of them, even sending them to college later after the war.
During the war, her husband was taken away by North Koreans, and she never saw him again. Since then, she raised her two children as a single mother. She escaped to Busan for 4 years during the war, then returned to Seoul after the armistice. Their home was destroyed by a bomb. As she fixed her home, she learned the construction business, and she went into the construction business, even building and selling homes.
In 1958, she ran a Popsicle factory for 3 years in Korea called Ice Caki. From 1961 to 1968, she used her gifts as a seamstress and ran a tailor shop. In 1969, she went back into the construction business.
Her two children immigrated to the United States, and she was invited to also immigrate there in 1985. She lived on Bainbridge Island for 28 years helping at her son’s dry cleaner business as the alteration specialist and retired when she was 90 years old.
In 2006, she started attending Pyung Ahn Church at the age of 83. For 6 years, she happily attended this church which took her 5 hours in travel time from Bainbridge Island riding a ferry, bus, and car.
In 2012, when she was 90 years old, she moved to Federal Way, Washington. She attended Pyung Ahn Church as a faithful member until she was 95 years old. In her 90’s, she was a faithful member of the Korean Senior Association in Federal Way where she attended 4 times a week to learn how to line dance. She loved music and dancing. In 2015, at 92, she was crowned as the queen among the 90 and over members of the Korean Seniors Association. In 2016, at 93, she received an award for having the best fashion, which she was very proud of.
She is survived by her 2 children, 3 grandsons, 1 granddaughter, 2 great-granddaughters, and 2 great-grandsons. She was always proud of all of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren.