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Oct 3, 2010
REMEMBERING MRS LEE 1920 - 2010
Kind and caring
A nation mourns the death of the wife of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
By Chua Mui Hoong, Deputy Review Editor
A motherly teacher
'I remember Mrs Lee as a very motherly type. My sister Carla worked and trained under her for three years. She was a caring boss and a great teacher. When my sister took her first holiday as a lawyer to Europe, Mrs Lee arranged for travellers' cheques for her. In those days, we didn't carry cash and she felt it was important to take precautions. So she went out to get them and made my sister sign them in her presence.'
MS DEBORAH BARKER, daughter of former minister Eddie Barker. Ms Carla Barker worked in Lee & Lee between 1976 and 1978.
Remembering her caring nature
Senior Minister of State Grace Fu, speaking on the sidelines of a grassroots event on Saturday, remembers the late Mrs Lee as an amiable, genuinely caring woman. Ms Fu, whose father James Fu was a former press secretary to Minister Mentor Lee, said: 'MM Lee has in the past a very stern and fearsome look, but Mrs Lee has always been able to be the balancing factor around him.'
She added: 'MM Lee loves to have a conversation and sometimes when we have a dinner or discussion that gets on too late into the night, she'll be the one that says, 'You know, Harry, let them go and take a rest.' 'She always had our interests at heart; we appreciate her for that.'
Mrs Jek Yeun Thong, 76, met Mrs Lee in the late 1950s, when her husband was political secretary at the Prime Minister's Office.
Mrs Jek last night recalled her generosity: 'When my father passed away in 1960, we went to see her for help with our legal paperwork like his will, and she said she wouldn't charge me.
'This I remember because she was very generous towards friends.'
Cabinet ministers yesterday hailed Mrs Lee's unstinting support for her husband, saying it contributed to the development of Singapore.
Said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng: 'Although she did not hold any political office, her contribution to Singapore is immeasurable.
'Her care and love for her family enabled MM to devote his time and energy to developing Singapore from the Third World to the First in one generation.' Labour chief Lim Swee Say, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said the legal help Mrs Lee, with her husband, gave unions laid the foundation for the labour movement. Using her expertise, she helped fight unscrupulous employers in the 1950s and 1960s for better wages and working conditions.
'For this, we are deeply indebted to Mrs Lee, an outstanding person who cared a lot for our workers.' Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, who entered politics in 2001, said Mrs Lee struck him as 'a very simple person, warm and friendly, putting all of us at ease' at a dinner with other MPs.
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam admired Mrs Lee for her 'grace and penetrating wit'. He added: 'Mrs Lee's courtship and getting married to MM Lee was a beautiful love story, and how different Singapore is because of it.'
AFTER completing her secondary school education at Methodist Girls' School, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew returned to her alma mater to do a spot of relief teaching.
It was a short stint but she left a long-lasting impression on her students.
One of them, Ms Lau Biau Chin from the class of 1946, said: 'We had a very good relief teacher by the name of Miss Kwa Geok Choo. Most of us cried bitterly when she left after a term. The next relief teacher loved to make us write lines...'
Ms Lau wrote of her memorable experience in a 1998 book, Treasured Memories, which gathered the recollections of former students of MGS.
Mrs Lee was one of its most illustrious old girls, having topped her class of 1936. She, too, contributed a treasured memory of her role as a coolie in a school play: 'My mother and I went down to Sungei Road and bought what the coolies would have bought. Pure cotton, dyed with indigo. When I had it washed, I would not wear it unwashed, the blue colour ran - real indigo.'
A picture of her in the play now hangs in MGS in its Heritage Room, said the school, its board of management and alumnae association, in a condolence statement last night.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_586156.html
REMEMBERING MRS LEE 1920 - 2010
Kind and caring
A nation mourns the death of the wife of Singapore's first Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew
By Chua Mui Hoong, Deputy Review Editor
A motherly teacher
'I remember Mrs Lee as a very motherly type. My sister Carla worked and trained under her for three years. She was a caring boss and a great teacher. When my sister took her first holiday as a lawyer to Europe, Mrs Lee arranged for travellers' cheques for her. In those days, we didn't carry cash and she felt it was important to take precautions. So she went out to get them and made my sister sign them in her presence.'
MS DEBORAH BARKER, daughter of former minister Eddie Barker. Ms Carla Barker worked in Lee & Lee between 1976 and 1978.
Remembering her caring nature
Senior Minister of State Grace Fu, speaking on the sidelines of a grassroots event on Saturday, remembers the late Mrs Lee as an amiable, genuinely caring woman. Ms Fu, whose father James Fu was a former press secretary to Minister Mentor Lee, said: 'MM Lee has in the past a very stern and fearsome look, but Mrs Lee has always been able to be the balancing factor around him.'
She added: 'MM Lee loves to have a conversation and sometimes when we have a dinner or discussion that gets on too late into the night, she'll be the one that says, 'You know, Harry, let them go and take a rest.' 'She always had our interests at heart; we appreciate her for that.'
Mrs Jek Yeun Thong, 76, met Mrs Lee in the late 1950s, when her husband was political secretary at the Prime Minister's Office.
Mrs Jek last night recalled her generosity: 'When my father passed away in 1960, we went to see her for help with our legal paperwork like his will, and she said she wouldn't charge me.
'This I remember because she was very generous towards friends.'
Cabinet ministers yesterday hailed Mrs Lee's unstinting support for her husband, saying it contributed to the development of Singapore.
Said Deputy Prime Minister Wong Kan Seng: 'Although she did not hold any political office, her contribution to Singapore is immeasurable.
'Her care and love for her family enabled MM to devote his time and energy to developing Singapore from the Third World to the First in one generation.' Labour chief Lim Swee Say, who is also Minister in the Prime Minister's Office, said the legal help Mrs Lee, with her husband, gave unions laid the foundation for the labour movement. Using her expertise, she helped fight unscrupulous employers in the 1950s and 1960s for better wages and working conditions.
'For this, we are deeply indebted to Mrs Lee, an outstanding person who cared a lot for our workers.' Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong, who entered politics in 2001, said Mrs Lee struck him as 'a very simple person, warm and friendly, putting all of us at ease' at a dinner with other MPs.
Finance Minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam admired Mrs Lee for her 'grace and penetrating wit'. He added: 'Mrs Lee's courtship and getting married to MM Lee was a beautiful love story, and how different Singapore is because of it.'
AFTER completing her secondary school education at Methodist Girls' School, Mrs Lee Kuan Yew returned to her alma mater to do a spot of relief teaching.
It was a short stint but she left a long-lasting impression on her students.
One of them, Ms Lau Biau Chin from the class of 1946, said: 'We had a very good relief teacher by the name of Miss Kwa Geok Choo. Most of us cried bitterly when she left after a term. The next relief teacher loved to make us write lines...'
Ms Lau wrote of her memorable experience in a 1998 book, Treasured Memories, which gathered the recollections of former students of MGS.
Mrs Lee was one of its most illustrious old girls, having topped her class of 1936. She, too, contributed a treasured memory of her role as a coolie in a school play: 'My mother and I went down to Sungei Road and bought what the coolies would have bought. Pure cotton, dyed with indigo. When I had it washed, I would not wear it unwashed, the blue colour ran - real indigo.'
A picture of her in the play now hangs in MGS in its Heritage Room, said the school, its board of management and alumnae association, in a condolence statement last night.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_586156.html
