Jerry Lee Jeong

Jerry Lee Jeong passed away on April 12, 2024 at 84 in the South Bay region of Los Angeles
County, a place and community he held dear and where he always wanted to be. Fiercely
independent and self-reliant, he chose to stop hemodialysis. He lived as he died, on his own
terms.

Jerry was born on May 15, 1939 in Taishan, China during the Second Sino-Japanese War,
which became part of the broader World War II conflict. In these tumultuous times and with
hazy recollections of his birth family, Jerry was adopted at some point in his young childhood
by Joe and Shang Yuet Lee and landed on the shores of San Pedro in 1948 as a nine year old.

His early years taught him self-reliance. He was private, stoic, dutiful, loving and protective of
those around him. These are the traits that stand out when one remembers Jerry.

The family settled in Mississippi where he picked up a faint Southern drawl. He became adept
in the art of small talk while helping his family run a local grocery and tending to a small
chicken farm. He never liked chicken since, unless fried.

In 1952, as a teenager, he and his family returned to the South Bay. He graduated from
Gardena High School in 1958 and enrolled in the University of Southern California. As a young
man, he practiced martial arts and went skin diving for lobsters off the coast of Palos Verdes
that he would then cook on a bonfire at the beach.

He later sought duty to country enlisting in the United States Army in 1959. He served his
active duty years as a paratrooper with the 101st Airborne Division and completed his service
in the Army Reserve as a corporal with Special Forces.

After his military service, Jerry returned to the South Bay for good and helped his father at their
family-run grocery, Joe’s Market. He then became a union meat cutter working in local area
groceries. In this role, he served the South Bay community for 36 years.

Jerry met his wife on a trip to Hong Kong in 1972, and they were married for more than fifty
years. Family life began with the birth of twin sons in 1974 and a daughter two years later. His
children remember him as a loving and doting father, who after a long day at work would greet
them with a rub from his scruffy chin and who took them on great adventures across the
western United States in a white Ford LTD wagon.

He retired in 1998 to help care for his first grandchild. Jerry was naturally playful, disarming and
loving around babies. He became a grandfather to seven grandchildren, all of whom he adored.

He never did travel extensively in retirement. He always said, “I’ve gone everywhere I wanted or
needed to be and everything I want or need is here.” Or more simply stated, his family is here.

Jerry lived his life, some periods more turbulent than others, always in service and duty to his
family, his community and his country. He is survived by his wife, Diana Lee, his sons, Daniel
and David Lee, his daughter, Judy Lee, and his grandchildren, Tylani Lee, Haydn Lee, Sejal Lee,
Kiran Lee, Rayne Coffee, Landon Lee and Finley Coffee.

Funeral arrangements are being made at Green Hills Memorial Park with his remembrance and
burial starting at 2:00 pm on May 3, 2024.