Name/Title
Rose Mai Tak Chin Brosseau ObituaryEntry/Object ID
2021.041.002Scope and Content
Rose Mai Tak Chin Brosseau funeral pamphlet obituary. Includes a recipe for wanton soup on the back.
She was born in Singapore on August 15, 1927, the only child of Chin Tan Ching, an accountant, and Wong Len Yin, a woman of many talents including cooking, knitting and languages. In 1932 Len Yin had tutored the adventurer and author Richard Halliburton in the local languages before his visit to Sumatra and Dutch Borneo. In 1942, the Chin family became refugees from World War II by dressing as peasants and traveling 200 miles by foot and coolie-pulled junk to Lolung, China. For the first year they lived with four other families (19 children altogether) in one three-story sod house. While there Rose had to redo junior high in Chinese, having been going to English school most of her life. Having to redo her schooling several times in different languages, Rose never graduated from high school.
In 1947 Rose sailed to the United States, docking in San Francisco. She received a bachelor’s degree from Union College in Lincoln, Neb. While there she successfully argued that English was her foreign language and that she should therefore be exempt from additional foreign language requirements. She studied nursing, completing her studies in the University of Washington’s master’s program. Rose worked as a nurse at Children’s Orthopedic Hospital in Seattle, retiring as a supervisor in 1970.
In 1958 Rose met George Mahlon Brosseau on a blind date in Seattle. Six months later they married. In 1960 the couple boarded the first of four freighters for a seven-month trip around the world. They had daughter Mai Lon Verle in 1962.
Although her mother could copy any knitted object from sight, Rose did not inherit this skill. She did, however, inherit her talent at cooking. She came to this country not really knowing how to cook, her mother having always done it. But she quickly picked it up and was soon teaching Chinese cooking classes at the House of Rice in Seattle’s University District.
Rose and Mahlon bought a lot at Useless Bay in 1965 where they later built a home. Upon her retirement from Children’s Hospital in 1970 they moved to Whidbey Island and the unfinished house. She didn’t seem to mind that it took more than ten years for Mahlon to complete the house himself, working on it evenings and weekends.
For a time, Rose’s Canine and Walking group exercised along Shore Avenue wearing brightly colored T-shirts with the same name.
The Brosseaus opened the Six Persimmons Oriental Restaurant and Gift Shop in Coupeville July 4th weekend, 1970. She came home crying that first day as much from relief as exhaustion. The Six Persimmons offered a fixed price menu of multi-Asian origins.Collection
Judy Lynn CollectionLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
ObituaryNomenclature Primary Object Term
AnnouncementNomenclature Sub-Class
Declaratory DocumentsNomenclature Class
Documentary ObjectsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsArchive Details
Date(s) of Creation
Nov 23, 2008Relationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Brosseau, Rose Mai Tak Chin
