Won Sook Park

It is with deep sadness that the Park family announces the passing of our beloved mother and grandmother, Won Sook Park. She departed us peacefully Saturday morning, August 26, 2023. At the time of her passing, she was at the home she created on Lafayette Drive in Monaca some 55 years ago, where she raised three children with all the determination, love and tenderness any mother could summon. She was 89 years of age. She follows her husband and our father, Il C. Park, who preceded her in his path to God four years ago. She is survived by her three children, Mi Hyun Lee, Tai Park and John Park; six grandchildren, her younger sister, Eiu Sook Kim in Korea and many nephews and nieces.

Won Sook Lee was born in South Korea in 1934 and survived the Korean war before meeting her husband. An accomplished artist and singer, she attended the Ehwa University, but was first and foremost a devoted servant of Christ. She loved God with simplicity and a faith that was pure and essential to her being. She came to this country as a young woman to rejoin her husband who had come first to establish himself as a professor of Philosophy at Penn State, Beaver Campus. With two children in tow, Won Sook was first lost in a world alien to her, isolated by her painfully shy nature and inability to speak English. But she soon found comfort and support in the many neighbors and friends in Monaca who introduced her to a life in America and, crucially, a church in Beaver she could attend. She recognized none of the English words in the hymnals but knew their meaning by heart and her beautiful voice rose to celebrate God every Sunday. Her neighbors also rallied to teach her how to drive, fill out tax forms and run an American household, something her academic husband was ill suited for. She made do and then some; denying herself any luxury, she ensured her children had all they needed and sent them off to colleges, celebrated their achievements and steadied them in the many times of trouble. She hand painted tiny chairs for each of her NY grandchildren at their cabin retreat, and they remain as a reminder of her love and quiet soul. She devoted herself to her PA grandchildren when her daughter needed help, offering unconditional love to each of them.

Our family takes comfort in our faith that she is with God and her late husband, rewarded in heaven as she selflessly rewarded us in life.
Family and friends are respectfully invited to attend her funeral services on Wednesday at 10 am at SIMPSON FUNERAL & CREMATION SERVICES, 1119 Washington Avenue, Monaca. Interment will follow in Beaver Cemetery, Beaver.
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