King Yoak Won Wu worshiped at True Sunshine Episcopal Church in San Francisco. This is the interior of the church.
King Yoak Won Wu , clergy spouse and leader of the True Sunshine Parish in San Francisco, was born in 1890. Her grandparents were from the province of Toi San in China; her father came to the United States during the California gold rush to help build the railroad. After her father's death, King and her sisters helped support the family through needlework. A very beautiful woman, King was known as "the beauty of Chinatown" in her day.1 In 1913, King married Daniel Wu, the first Chinese-American Episcopal priest and a 1912 graduate of the ChurchDivinitySchool of the Pacific, in Grace Cathedral, San Francisco. The couple had four children; their daughter Betty also married an Episcopal priest. A committed member of the church and partner in ministry with her husband, King Yoak Won Wu dedicated her considerable energies to the community of the True Sunshine Parish. Given her expertise in needlework, King made vestments, taught sewing and embroidery to parishioners, and ran the parish altar guild. She also made many visits to parishioners' homes and taught Sunday School. She died in 1982.
Notes:
1. The primary source for information on King Yoak Won Wu is her Oral History interview, conducted by the Rev. Fran Toy in October 1981. [See Freedom is a Dream for an excerpt of this interview.]
