Cecilia Therese Chen-Wu Hart

Cecilia Therese Chen-Wu Hart

Memorial Services for Cecilia Therese Chen-Wu Hart will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, August 2, 2011, in Our Lady of Prompt Succor Catholic Church with Rev. Dan O'Connor officiating. Visitation will be held from 10 a.m. Tuesday until the time of the service at the church. Arrangements are under the direction of John Kramer & Son. Cecilia Therese Chen-Wu Hart, 91, died on July 29, 2011. Born and raised in China, she was a granddaughter of Chen Pao-Shen, chief tutor to PuYi, the last emperor of China. Her father, Chen Mao-Fu, mandarin of Fukien Province, was executed by the communists when they came to power, charged with being a "feudal landlord."

She earned a law degree in China, but abandoned the profession because of the corruption she constantly encountered.

Born into a Buddhist household, she eventually became a devout Roman Catholic. Following the death of her husband, Professor Casimiro Rubio, in Hawaii, President Dwight Eisenhower signed a private bill enabling her to immigrate to New York. She eventually earned an MSW degree from NYU and worked as a psychiatric social worker in New York and on the island of Guahan in the Pacific with her second husband, Psychiatrist Dr. Roy Hanu Hart.

She is survived by her husband Dr. Roy Hanu Hart, nephew Jason Chen of Plano, Texas, and niece Toni Xiao of New Jersey.