1923-?, 1899-1990
Marshee and Jean Eng were a mother and daughter at 81 Columbia Street in Newark’s Chinatown who were profiled several times for their ambition and commitment to the WWII efforts in Newark. Marshee was known as “the bean sprout lady” in Chinatown and Jean was class treasurer and voted Most Respected in her Jun 1943 class.
Jean Eng was born in the United States in 1923 (one source says Montclair) and she spent several years of her childhood in China. In Newark, her family lived at at 81 Columbia Street where her father Toy Eng had a bean sprout business. He supplied Mung beans to 24 restaurants as of 1940.
Jean graduated Central High in June 1943, listed as Class Treasurer and Most Respected. Around that time she was profiled twice in the Newark newspapers. In April 1942, she was part of the Junior Achievement program at 550 Broad Street, which helped young people start businesses. In this capacity she was treasurer of Mofasco Products Co, a fashion company. In the profile, Jean stated she wanted to raise money to open a war orphanage in China.
In November 1942, Jean delivered her father’s soybean sprouts down Mulberry Street and into New York. She did this before and after school. Her brother James, who had been delivering the sprouts, was the first Chinese pilot from Newark. She was also a Sunday School teacher at Old First, wanted to be a nurse and was learning to dance.
Just after graduation Jean married Joseph C. Lee. Tragically, while she was on her honeymoon in Washington her family got the news that her brother James had been killed in the war.
In November 1943, Jean’s mother Marshee was profiled by the Sunday Call. After her son’s death, though she didn’t speak much English, she said she wanted to help win the War. She volunteered to work a war plant job at Federal Telephone and Radio. She is listed at the tuberculosis sanitarium in 1940, so it is notable she did this despite potentially only recently recovered health.
By 1950, Joseph and Jean moved to West Orange and had four children 5 and under. After raising their children they retired to Florida where Joseph died in 2007.
Marshee died in 1990 at age 91, and lived in the Newark area for 70 years. She was born in California, but lived in China before coming to Newark. When Yoland Skeete organized a 2007 Chinatown reunion Marshee Eng was remembered as “the bean sprout lady”.
Bibliography
Teall, Edna “Newark Farmer…” Newark News Jan 18, 1943
Central Yearbook 1943: https://archive.org/details/NewarkCentral194306/page/n85/mode/2up?q=jean+eng
“They Head Companies At Age of 17” Newark News April 27, 1942
“Always Deliver With a Smile” Newark Sunday Call Nov 29, 1942
“First Chinese Newarker to Win Pilot Wings” Newark News May 5, 1943
“Newark Chinese Flyer Dies” Newark News Aug 4, 1943
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/tampabaytimes/name/joseph-lee-obituary?id=10653707
1950 Federal Census
“Spirit of China Here” Newark Sunday Call Nov 28, 1943
Eng, Marshee, and “Marshee Eng” Star Ledger Dec 27, 1990
Wang, Katie, “Vestiges of a Community” Star Ledger Jun 3, 2007
1940 census