Meet Betty
Betty is proud of her local roots and strong family values. A native of San Francisco, she cares deeply about the health and well-being of her community, city, and state. Additionally, Betty’s experience working in the family neighborhood business while growing up heavily influenced her strong work ethic and commitment to family values.
Betty was born to immigrant parents who established a laundry and dry cleaners in the Parkside District of San Francisco and operated it for 30 years. Her father Ging and her mother Soo are from the Canton region of China. Ging came to the United States in 1933 and worked as an apprentice in the laundry business. He enlisted in the United States Army in 1940 and served in active duty during World War II. He returned to China in 1948 to marry Soo who along with their first child, fled China in 1953 to stay with relatives in Hong Kong. Ging was able to bring his wife and daughter to the United States in 1956, when he founded his own laundry and dry cleaning business.
The second oldest of their six children, Betty grew up speaking no English at home. She attended public schools in the San Francisco Unified School District from kindergarten to grade 12. As with her siblings, when not in school, she worked the counter of her parents’ business, interacting with customers and often serving as translator for her parents when they dealt with vendors as well as assisting in financial transactions for them.
Betty’s work ethic was modeled after that of her parents, who never closed the business other than on Sundays and holidays and never took vacations. She is especially proud of the reputation her father built as a premier expert in washing and finishing men’s shirts and the compliments of many patrons of her mother’s services as an excellent seamstress.
The hard work of Ging and Soo inspired Betty and her siblings to do well in school. All six children are college graduates: five from the University of California, Berkeley, and one from San Francisco State University; three have advanced degrees. Betty earned her bachelor’s degree in Sociology from the University of California, Berkeley, and her master’s degree in Public Administration from Golden Gate University in San Francisco.
