Marie Lai Wong

Marie Lai Wong was born Lai York Bing in Chungshan, Shekki in 1925 to Lai Jun Bi and Xiao Pei Yu. She was the third eldest of six children.

In 1947 Marie met her future husband, Horace, an American-born Chinese who traveled to China to find a bride. They settled in Fresno, California where they gave birth to five children. The family moved to Watsonville to join Horace’s brother, building on their pre-existing partnership, and together they worked in a downtown dry goods store until their retirement. Marie remained in Watsonville nineteen years after her husband died until her passing on June 1, 2025.

In Marie’s Chinese lineage it is said that her mother Xiao Pei Yu was one of a group of four prominent business women noted in the history of Sun Yat-sen, China’s famous “Father of the Nation.” These women owned shops adjacent to Sun Yat-Sen’s medicine store and were called “the free-riding wives” for their far reaching influence in that region during the Qing Dynasty and early Republic of China. Marie’s oldest brother joined the Communist party in its early days as an idealist who wanted to serve the common man. He later became the mayor of Canton.

Marie is survived by her children: Victor, Elaine, Evelyn, Elisa, and Martin; by Elisa’s husband, David Lobell, and Martin’s wife, Susie Kim; by Elaine’s sons, Jeffrey Meade and his wife Maria, and Scott Meade and his partner Rachel Allen and Rachel’s son, Adam; and by her three great-grandchildren: Jasmine, Nathan, and Izabela.

She will be deeply missed by all who knew her.