Martha Teh Tao

Martha Teh Shwan Tao passed away peacefully on February 25th, 2026, in Henderson, Nevada. She was 95 years old. Martha was born on November 7, 1930, in Wuxi in Jiangsu Province of China. She was the oldest daughter of Kuang Yan Liu (her father), a professor and a famous news columnist, and Mei Chun Chang (her mother). She and her four siblings grew up in various cities in China, including Nangjing and Chongqing (China's wartime capital) where their family fled to right before the Japanese invaded. Martha and her family remained in Chongqing for the rest of World War II. There, she attended China's top high school, Nankai Secondary School, where her future husband Heng Sheng Tao also attended, although they did not meet at that time. In 1949, the communist revolution forced her family to flee to Taiwan. She attended Taiwan University where she met Heng Sheng in 1950. They got married on December 25th, 1954.

Martha was among the top students who graduated from Taiwan University; she then worked as a journalist until she gave birth to her oldest son, Teh Hsin, in 1956. Two years later she gave birth to her daughter, Yo Huei (Jenny). In 1960, her husband decided to pursue his engineering career in the cement manufacturing industry in Malaysia, so Martha moved her entire family to Malaysia where her youngest daughter, Yo Chow (Alice) was born. During her stay in Malaysia, she was busy supporting her husband's growing career and raising her family, while visiting her parents and parents-in-law in Taiwan at least annually. In 1969, Martha embarked on a trip to Europe to meet her husband who was there for a business meeting. They spent 2 weeks visiting Hamburg, Copenhagen, Vienna, Milan, and Venice, Rome, and then they had a short stay in Bangkok before they finally headed home to Ipoh, Malaysia. In 1977, Martha and her husband decided to immigrate their entire family (and two family dogs) to the United States, and they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where Martha had a taste of life as an American housewife. She was warmly welcomed into the neighborhood community in Marietta, and improved her English language skills and understanding of the American culture and the American way of life. But only after one short year, her husband decided to accept a job offer from the largest cement manufacturing company in Asia, and Martha once again moved her family to Jakarta, Indonesia. And a few years later, Martha and her husband moved to Westwood, California, and then another move to Taipei, Taiwan. Then in 1997, when her husband retired, they moved to Kokomo, Indiana, to be with their son and his family. Not long after that, they moved again to Oakland, California where they lived in two condos in Chinatown, hosting many family reunions and holiday family gatherings. During the last 5 years of their stay in Oakland, Martha was the primary caregiver of her husband who suffered from leukemia and eventually passed away in 2017. Martha then moved to Burlingame, CA, and most recently she moved to Henderson, Nevada in 2021.

Martha loved cooking, painting, flower arrangement, sewing, knitting, crocheting, and she also loved to study about healthy living through diet and self-massage therapies. She always put the needs of her husband and her children before hers. Her husband credited her for her strength and courage to support his career while managing and maintaining a stable home life for the family while moving from country to country. About her amazing Chinese culinary skills, she always knew what to cook for her husband and children when they visited, with no recipes but years of accumulated experience in her head. Her children and friends remember the Chinese dinner banquets she prepared to entertain her husband's colleagues and visitors to their home. Her grandchildren remember her for her teachings of love, health and family, and her extraordinary generosity towards them and their families.

Martha was survived by her children, Teh Hsin Too (Joyce), Jenny Fang (Ho Tong), Ginny Sherwood (Ross), and Alice Hager (Michael), and her grandchildren Alan Wong, Tiffany Benson (Brian), Justin Fang (Tammy), and Michael Too, and her great-granddaughters Mia and Ava Benson and great-grandson Warren Fang.

Martha lived an extraordinary life in so many countries, and she has touched so many people with her kindness and generosity. Her children and grandchildren will miss her dearly but feel comforted that she is home with Lord Jesus and her husband.

A Celebration of Life will be held in early May at Sunrise Senior Living in Henderson, Martha's home since 2021. More details will be provided at a later date.