Interview with Jane Lee Gabriel

Abstract

Jane Lee Gabriel, daughter of Korean immigrants, Sun Yei Lee and Bong Hee Lee, was born in Lānaʻi City, Lānaʻi in 1933. Her father, Sun Yei Lee, was employed as a field luna by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. Her mother, Bong Hee Lee, took in laundry from Korean bachelors employed by the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. Her parents supported a family that included six children. As a youth, Jane Gabriel helped her mother with the laundry, worked in the pineapple fields in the summers, babysat and house-cleaned for the island’s Caucasian residents. She and her family were active in the Korean community. She attended Korean-language classes and the Korean Methodist Church. A 1951 graduate of Lānaʻi High and Elementary School, she lived for short periods of time on Oʻahu. Married to John Gabriel since 1954, she raised four daughters. For many years, she worked for the public library and the welfare office on Lānaʻi. Retired since 1993, Jane Lee Gabriel is grandmother to seven and great-grandmother to six.