Person

Pon, Jenny

• 盤錦霞

• Pon, Jennie
• Lee, Jenny

1923-1999

Jenny PON was born on January 8, 1923 in Killam, Alberta.

Her grandfather, PON Git Cheng, arrived in Canada in the 1870s to work on the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway and is named in Pierre Berton’s book, The Last Spike. He returned to China.

Jenny's father, PON Soong Lung settled in Alberta. In 1922, his wife, WONG Kim Sing, and their son Jim joined him in Killam, leaving their daughter in China. Jenny and her brothers (Jim and George) and sister (Daisy) grew up in Chauvin where the family ran a restaurant. The children attended a one-room school in town. Jennie went to high school in Wainwright and then trained to be a teacher at Edmonton Normal School.

In 1944, after her father’s passing, Jim arranged for the family to move to Toronto. He supported his mother and his siblings through their studies at the University of Toronto through to graduation in the 1940s. George went on to earn a Masters’ degree at MIT and a PhD at U of T. He later became a Vice President at Atomic Energy of Canada. Jenny graduated with a BA and earned her teaching certificate at Ontario College of Education, going on to teach at Forest Hill Collegiate.

In 1949, Jenny married Roy Lee and they moved to Gander, Newfoundland. Roy was assigned by the federal government to work at the Gander Airport.

Jenny gave birth to Newfoundland’s first Chinese baby: a boy named Gordon in 1950. Altogether, she had 3 children, all boys: Gordon, David, and Peter. When Peter was in high school, Jenny went back to teaching mathematics full-time at Eastern High School of Commerce. During this time, she earned a Master's of Education degree from the University of Toronto.

Jenny passed away on May 3, 1999.

Jenny's brother, Jim, represented their family among surviving Chinese head tax payers who received Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s apology from the Government of Canada in 2006.

Lee, Roy Gook Sung (1924-2015)

Description supplied by collector/curator