Yeap Chor Ee - Personal Life

Personal Life

In 1942, Yeap Hock Hoe married Julia Phang who gave birth to a daughter, Angela Yeap (Yeap Poh Suat). Julia later left Homestead and remarried. Angela, however, remained in Homestead and grew up there. Angela remained one of Datuk Yeap's favourite daughters, and even her grandmother (Yeap Chor Ee's wife, Lee Cheng Kin) was so fond of her that she mourned continuously after Angela's death in her twenties. Angela had two sons with Thomas Chan, and their eldest son is now married with two daughters who are Yeap Chor Ee's eldest great-great grandchildren.

During the Japanese Occupation Datuk Yeap re-married to someone called Hooi Kum Chee, then still in her teens, who lived in Homestead. Although there is no evidence of Kum Chee’s marriage, Yeap Chor Ee recognized her as Datuk Yeap’s wife. She seemed to be acknowledged as the principal wife of Datuk Yeap. She gave birth to three daughters and one son, Yeap Leong Huat. During his marriage to Kum Chee and sometime in 1943, Datuk Yeap met Yam Kim Lian at the Wembley Arcade where he frequented regularly. Eventually, she became his secondary wife in 1944 and bore him two daughters and four sons, namely, Leong Theam, Leong Keng, Leong How and Leong Chin. Kim Lian and her children lived at Selamat Lane whilst Datuk Yeap and Kum Chee continued to live with his parents in Homestead.

Kum Chee died in 1948 after an operation. She was still in her early twenties, leaving behind four young children, the eldest of whom was five years old and the youngest barely two years. Datuk Yeap was deeply grieved by her death. Some three years later, on 22 December 1951 Datuk Yeap married Kum Chee’s younger sister Hooi Sooi Wan, then 20 years old. The marriage was conducted in Homestead according to Chinese rites and custom in the presence of Yeap Chor Ee and Lee Cheng Kin and others. The bride was given a signed marriage certificate. It is not in dispute that Yam Kim Lian also took part in the marriage ceremony and was also given a marriage certificate. In 1957 Datuk Yeap married another wife, Gan Chiew Hiang, who gave birth to three daughters.

To a traditionalist such as Yeap Chor Ee, it was not surprising that Kim Lian was recognized as a wife when by 1949 she had given birth to two sons. This recognition did not mean that she was accepted as a principal wife. She had never moved in to live in Homestead where Datuk Yeap resided. One would expect a principal wife to live in Homestead with her husband. It is hardly an accepted arrangement for a principal wife and her husband to live in separate houses, especially when he lived with his parents in the family house. The fact that another son of Yeap Chor Ee lived outside his family house with his principal wife is neither here nor there. Apparently, this was with the consent of his parents.

A Full List of Datuk Yeap's wives:

• Ida Oei (married in 1933), who divorced shortly after the birth of a son, Francis Yeap.
• Julia Phang (m. 1942), who later left Homestead and remarried.
• Hooi Kum Chee (m. ~ 1943), who died in 1948, after an operation;
• Yam Kim Lian (m. 1944), who lived at Selamat Lane with her children;
• Hooi Sooi Wan (m. 1951); who is Hooi Kum Chee's younger sister;
• Gan Chiew Hiang (m. 1957).