Lee, Loretta
Loretta Lee’s family history in Canada dates back more than a century. Both her paternal and maternal grandmothers arrived in Calgary, Alberta, in the early 1900s as two of the first Chinese women to arrive in the city. Loretta’s mother, Nellie Ho Lem, was very active in her community as a member of the United Church and the Lady Laurier Club, a women’s organization for the Liberal Party. Loretta grew up in Calgary and in Dawson Creek, British Columbia, where the family lived for a number of years. Following in her mother’s footsteps, Loretta has actively pursued community work and has been a volunteer with the Sien Lok Society in Calgary since its inception.
Nellie Ho Lem (née Wong) appears in this portrait with her siblings and mother, Mrs. Wong Mo Yin. The matriarch (front, centre) joined her husband in Calgary in the early 1900s. Widowed as a young mother, Mrs. Wong raised six children on her own. Nellie quit school at age 11 to help support the family. Without much extended family in Canada, the Wongs relied on the support of Calgary’s relatively small Chinese community, which numbered at around eighty people in the early twentieth century. Front Row: Lily, Mrs. Wong Mo Yin (mother), and Marguerite (Joanne Woo's mother). Back Row: Lee, Nellie and Harry. Ben, Nellie’s eldest brother, is missing from this photograph.
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