Person

Chan, Doris

• Lee, Doris

1921-1999

Doris Chan was born August 22, 1921 in Victoria, BC. Her parents were both industrious entrepreneurs. Her father, John Chan, who had arrived in Victoria in 1902, ran his own lumber and wood dealership. He purchased land, harvested the wood and would throw the deed in a drawer.

Doris' mother, Mae, owned Pandora Dressmakers located at 739 Pandora Street. The Chans were the first Chinese Canadian family to buy and live outside of Victoria Chinatown. In 1916, they purchased a house at 2003 Quadra Street.

At age 13, Doris started working part-time at her mother’s dress-making shop where she helped hem dresses for $0.25 per hem.

When she turned 19, Doris went to San Francisco to attend the Institute of Fashion Design. She returned to Victoria two years later and started working full-time at her mother’s dressmaking shop alongside her other older sisters. Doris specialized in wedding dresses and evening gowns. And even after her mother moved to the U.S. in 1942, Doris and her sisters continued with the dressmaking business. Their customers were the wives of politicians and the Victoria elite.

Doris started saving at age 13 and began investing at 22. She bought a car, had $5,000 in the bank by age 25, and purchased her first house in 1948 at 27.

It was around this time that Doris met Ronald Lee, an attractive and happy-go-lucky young man from Vancouver who had served in WWII with Force 136. He was working in Victoria after the war.

The two married in 1950 and would have six children together: Greg, Blake, Rhonda, Patty, Valerie and Lori. However, for Doris, the marriage to Ronald would be difficult and painful.

As recalled by Doris’ daughter Patty Lee “…in 1957, without her knowledge, our father bought a grocery store called Columbia Market in Vancouver, located at Broadway and Columbia. They moved to the store in July 1958. My mom left her beautiful home in Victoria, her business and her family and friends. The attached home at the back of the store was a dump and the store barely made enough to feed their six kids. My Dad got a second job and then a third job. And then he would travel to Victoria on the weekends to visit his girlfriend. That left my mom to run the store 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, from 8 am to 8 pm, and care for six kids.”

Patty describes one particularly difficult incident for Doris while working alone in the store. “Around 1962 my mother was working in Columbia Market store. My brother, Greg, was playing in the store and was maybe 10 years old. A man came in with a knife to rob my mom. She asked why he was doing this. He said it was because his family was starving and he needed food. My mom went to our home at the back of the store and proceeded to make sandwiches. She then came out and filled grocery bags with food, along with the sandwiches, and told him to take the food and go. A few years later, the man came back and thanked my mom and paid for the groceries.”

Doris passed away on September 9, 1999 at age 78.

At Doris’ celebration of life, her son Greg, remarked “Our Mom was the center of our world, she was both our mother and our father. For those who have never met our mom…you would know her if you knew any of us. Because we are who we are because of our mother.”

Lee, Ronald H.F. (1919-2020)

Description supplied by collector/curator