Wong Yet Gow, a.k.a. Wong Yuet Ngor, was born in San Francisco, CA, the second daughter and fourth child of Wong Yee Fat and Leong Ho, Chinese immigrants to the United States. Although she was a second-generation American, she spoke only Cantonese and was raised in a family steeped in Chinese tradition. When she was still a teenager, she married Choo Ly, a wealthy landowner many years her senior, and moved to Bakersfield, CA. There she raised two children—a son, Charles (Way Ping), and a daughter, Rose (Mon Lung)—and was an active member of Bakersfield’s large Chinese community. Following the death of her husband in 1908, she also had to manage the many pieces of property that were left to her in what is now downtown Bakersfield.
Wong Yet Gow, a.k.a. Wong Yuet Ngor, was born in San Francisco, CA, the second daughter and fourth child of Wong Yee Fat and Leong Ho, Chinese immigrants to the United States. Although she was a second-generation American, she spoke only Cantonese and was raised in a family steeped in Chinese tradition. When she was still a teenager, she married Choo Ly, a wealthy landowner many years her senior, and moved to Bakersfield, CA. There she raised two children—a son, Charles (Way Ping), and a daughter, Rose (Mon Lung)—and was an active member of Bakersfield’s large Chinese community. Following the death of her husband in 1908, she also had to manage the many pieces of property that were left to her in what is now downtown Bakersfield.
Inscription
In the traditional order of Chinese names, her name is Wong Yet Gow (Wong=family name, Yet Gow=personal name). Her personal name can also be romanized as Yuet Ngor. She was the widow of Choo Ly (Choo=family name, Ly=personal name), which is why the headstone has such an odd inscription. A literal translation of the Chinese characters is "Grave of a woman of the Wong clan married to a man of the Choo clan" or "Grave of Mrs. Choo née Wong."
