Ying Ling Smith
June 18, 1934 - June 13, 2008
Obituary
Ying Ling Lynn Chen Smith M.D.
Ying Ling Lynn Chen Smith passed away June 13th from the effects senile dementia. Born in 1934 in Hunan Province, China, to parents who were in the diplomatic corps, Lynn escaped the Communist revolution in 1949 and emigrated to Taiwan in 1949 where she completed her secondary schooling and proceeded to obtain her medical degree. In 1956, she moved to Chicago where she was a research fellow at Rush-Presbyterian-St.Luke’s Medical Center and practiced medicine in Illinois and New York, NY until 1960, when she traveled to Rota, Spain to manage a restaurant. There she met a tall, handsome U.S. Navy sailor named Jasper Smith who asked for her hand in marriage. They were granted a marriage certificate in nearby Gibraltar and they settled in Seattle in 1962. Here, she continued her medical work until the birth of her only child in late 1963. She then became a stay-at-home mother, and proudly became a naturalized citizen in 1967. In 1973, the family relocated to the east coast to allow Lynn to complete her Foreign Medical Graduate certification and she worked for several years in Massachusetts. Relocating back to Seattle in the late 1970’s, she then shared her time between parenting and providing medical services for the State. Normalization of relations between the United States and China in 1979 allowed for re-establishment of communication with her only sister, Ying Je Chen, in Beijing after 40 years of silence. Like her younger sister, Ying Je also worked in the medical field, but as a radiologist. Reunification with Ying Je occurred in 1980 in Beijing with a follow-up trip in June, 1989, during which they were witnesses to the student protests leading up to Tiananmen Square. Upon the enrollment of her son in college in 1981, Lynn returned to Taiwan to balance her Western medical education with Eastern teachings and learned acupuncture and other traditional Chinese medicines. Lynn finished out her medical career as the administrator of a small hospital in Taichung, Taiwan until 1993 at which point she retired and moved back to Seattle to be closer to her son. Shortly afterwards, she succumbed to dementia and settled into long term care at Seattle Medical Rehabilitation Center where she received excellent and caring service from the entire staff and from the University of Washington/Harborview Hospital’s medical team for geriatric care. She was preceded in death by her father, Mine Chen, mother Anna Shultz, and sister, Ying Je Chen. She is survived by her former spouse, Jasper Smith of Port Orchard, Washington, son and daughter-in-law Brian Chen Smith and Peggy McShane and granddaughter Victoria Jean Chen McSmith, all of Seattle, Washington.
A graveside service will be held at BONNEY-WATSON Washington Memorial Park, 16445 International Blvd., SeaTac, WA on Friday, June 20th at 1:00 p.m.
To the Smith Family:
Please accept my sincere condolences for you great loss. My prayers are with you during this time of grief.
Dear Brian, & Peggy & Rory,
Thanks for sharing some of your mother’s amazing story. Our thoughts are with you today and on going.
Tom & Laura
Our thoughts are with you in this sad time but the good memories you have will last when the sadness diminishes. We are very sorry for your loss.
Larry and Nancy Rusin
We are thinking of you.
Love to you all,
Carla