Person

Koo, Abe

• 古慧蘭
• 雷古慧蘭

• Koo, Ah Lan
• Louie, Abe
• Louie, Wai Lan

1914-1997

Abe KOO was born KOO Ah Lan on December 26, 1914, in New Westminster, BC, as the second of nine children. Her father, KOO Man Heen (1883–1966), originally from [廣東 Guangdong] province, had arrived in British Columbia in 1898. He returned to China in 1910 and married Wong Shee (1890–1955), also of [廣東 Guangdong]; she then immigrated to Canada with him.

Abe’s father worked as a tailor in New Westminster’s Chinatown, owning and operating the Sun On Company. At the time, New Westminster was home to the oldest Chinese Canadian community in western Canada until it was expropriated in 1948. A devastating fire destroyed the family business in 1922, and the Koo family moved to Calgary in 1929. Abe’s father became a market gardener, operating Koo’s Market Garden on the Colonel Walker Estate near the Bow River, from 1929 until the 1950s. Abe and her siblings grew up helping out on the farm.

While living in Calgary, Abe was introduced to Louie Gum Ho 雷金灝 (known after marriage as Louie Gar Shek 雷家碩) who had arrived in Canada in 1921 and was working for the H.Y. Louie company. They courted and were engaged by Chinese custom and tradition, eventually marrying on November 1, 1932. After marriage, Abe was also known as LOUIE Wai Lan.

The couple honeymooned in China to visit Gum Ho’s family in [中山 Zhongshan]. Back in Canada, they lived in Vancouver, where Gum Ho bought a truck and sold produce door-to-door.

Abe and Gum Ho had 11 children: four daughters and seven sons: William, Edward, Marian, Norman, Richard, Robert, Thomas, Andrew, Maxine, Elizabeth and Deborah. Six of Abe’s seven sons graduated from medical school and went on to practice medicine in Calgary and Vancouver, while two of her daughters—Elizabeth and Maxine—also became medical professionals. Robert and Deborah became successful businesspersons. Abe and Gum Ho were both very proud of this family tradition, which carried on amongst their grandchildren and great-grandchildren, many of whom also entered medicine.

In 1949, Gum Ho moved to Calgary while Abe stayed in Vancouver. In Calgary, Gum Ho opened the Tai Lee Herbal Shop at 206 Centre Street in Calgary’s Chinatown, which he ran until he retired.

In Vancouver, Abe became a shopkeeper. In 1952, she first operated the 7th Avenue Grocery at Commercial and 7th Avenue. A year later, she sold the business and moved with her children to join her husband in Calgary. There, she opened the Glenmore Grocery at 1621 34th Avenue in 1953, which she ran until she retired in 1968.

Abe passed away in Guadeloupe on April 10, 1997. Her legacy, along with her husband’s, lives on through her many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. To carry on his grandparents’ values, Abe’s grandson, Dr. Brian Louie, founded a scholarship in his grandparents’ names for aspiring medical professionals at the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Alberta.

Description supplied by collector/curator