Anna Chung Whitten passed away Thursday, February 23, 2023 at the age of 88.
Funeral service: 11 a.m. Wednesday, March 8, 2023 at St. Mary's Catholic Church.
Visitation: 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 7, 2023 at Brown Owens & Brumley Family Funeral Home.
Burial: Anna will be laid to rest at Dallas Fort Worth National Cemetery.
Anna was born December 26, 1934 to the late Ung IL Chung and Chang Hack in Korea.
My mom was funny and fierce, loving and tough. She was born in Anak, North Korea, the second oldest of four sisters. In the chaotic time leading up to the Korean War, her family left behind all that they possessed and many whom they loved in order to survive. She rarely spoke about the war and her family experiences and resisted my curious and probably intrusive questions for most of her life. She described the time around the partition of North and South Korea as a frightening experience and later acknowledged that although it was important for me to know about this history it was a very bad memory for her. Through this trauma, my mom emerged resilient and ahead of her time, briefly studying political science and interested in journalism when these fields were largely closed to women in Korea. She worked for Korean Air Lines and later a US governmental office focused on economic development for Korea. She met my Dad when he was a young Army lawyer stationed near Seoul and again rebelled against tradition and married him in 1967 essentially leaving everything again. She embraced America for all the messiness, vastness, and potential. She loved old American movies, Korean food, fashion, her Mah Jong ladies group, trips to the casino with my dad, and above all else her family. She was a wonderful mother who made sure to put iceberg lettuce in my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in grade school because she worried I was not getting enough vegetables and made all those moves during my Dad's military service look easy. No matter where we landed in the world, Mom and Dad were always my home. I miss them both dearly. Anna Choong Chu Whitten is preceded in death by her parents, 2 older siblings who died in childhood, her younger sister Cha, and her husband of 54 years Bill who passed away in 2021. She is survived by an older sister in Korea, her youngest sister Moonja and brother in law Ho Soo of Duncanville, Texas, her daughter Suzin and son in law Martin of Fort Worth, Texas, and her granddaughters Francesca and Josephine who provided so much joy during these last years of her life. Thank you Mommy for everything.
