Mississippi Delta Chinese

I'm a practicing dentist in NYC with a focus on dental sleep medicine and orthodontics.

I'm an advocate for healthy functional living with the emphasis of being in tune with nature and therefore living an organic lifestyle.

I grew up in Turrell, AR.  My closest friend throughout elementary school was Robert (Bob Lum.  Bob's family operated a grocery store in Turrell, one of three Chinese grocers there, and later moved to Greenville, MS where they operated a store for many years.  After almost 50 years Bob and I were reunited recently and it was as though those years had not passed.  Our friendship was strong enough that we picked up where we stopped many years ago and enjoyed a wonderful evening of rememberances.  I saw Bob's brother Ed Soon at a reunion last year and that is what enabled the reunion with Bob.  The Lum/Soon brothers were all good friends along with the Wah brothers who, although younger than me have continued to be good friends.  Charlie Wah was the mayor of our town for many years.  Charlie recently passed away.   I have always been intrigued by the history of Chinese in the Delta and was happy to learn of this website to get more information.  The website was passed along to me by Bob Lum.

Arlene Jones is an award winning journalist who writes for the Austin Weekly News. She is also the author of a brand new novel, Billion Dollar Winner.

Date:  29 December 2011

Born in Greenwod, MS and lived in Moorhead, MS.  My father, Joe W. Quon was a farmer and businessman who also ran a grocery store.  My mother, Sandra Quon, was an artist, musician, and teacher.  I have two older brothers, Eric and Richard and one younger sister, Teresa. 

I graduated in 1983 from Delta State Univeristy and married in 1984 to the former Miss Melanie Chow of Greenville, MS.  We have a daughter, Mallery who is married to Joshua Yen of Texas and a son, Joseph Woodrow Quon (named after my father and father-in-law) who is still attending high school. 

After retirement from the US Army, I entered into the Aerospace and Defense Industry and am currently the Vice Preisdent of Unmanned Systems for Elbit Systems of America. Melanie is an RN and Mallery is a Children's Minister at the Village Church in Flower Mound, TX.  Joe is planning to follow in my footsteps as a soldier.

I am an international student from Taiwan.  I am currently a doctoral candidate at Ole Miss and working on my dissertation about Chinese/Chinese American students at UM.

My husband is also a student at Ole Miss.  We have two daughters.  We enjoy our life in Oxford very much.

I am doctoral candidate in sociology at Tulane University in New Orleans, LA. My research interests include immigrant communities in the Gulf South, Vietnamese American research and qualitative methods.

My husband and I live with our incredibly feisty daughter in beautiful Bay Saint Louis, Mississippi.