Opassi J. White
For
U. S. Representative
(Congress)
Oahu Urban District ®
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ForU. S. Representative(Congress) Oahu Urban District ®
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Personal Information
By
A.A. Smyser Tuesday, February 20, 2001 Thai woman immigrant has come far I
could entitle this column, "The Making of an American." Opassi Sae Jiong grew
up in Ubon, Thailand, in a family of 14, including 10 half brothers and sisters.
She helped her father send other children through school. Then, at 29, she was
beyond the age at which a Thai college would accept her. She saw an ad for
Cannon's Business College in Honolulu, where her age was no barrier. She
applied, was accepted, and got a student visa to enter the U.S. On arrival here,
Cannon's helped her find a place to live. That was 1970. The place they found
was the Smyser household in Makiki Heights. My late wife and I
wanted a student to live in a little room we had under the main house who would
be a "mother's helper" for our daughter and son, who were just
entering their teens. We went out a lot of evenings to functions related to my
Star-Bulletin editorship role or Betty's role as a TV hostess. It worked out fine.
Opassi became a part of the family until she graduated from Cannon's in 1972.
She then moved into the Fernhurst YWCA residence and became an accountant for
Cannon's parent company. The Immigration and
Naturalization Service told her she would have to leave the U.S. since she no
longer was a student. She learned, however, that she could stay if she married
an American. It happened that she
had become acquainted with a widower, Edward White, who was director of the
electronics institute that was a part of the Cannon group. He was enough older
than Opassi that my late wife and I were at first dismayed. We shouldn't have
been. She took him to
Thailand to meet her family and was a devoted wife until he died in 1994. He
constantly praised what a wonderful helpmate she was. In 1976, the
bicentennial year, she became a U.S. citizen. Since 1992 she has held an
accounting position with the state Department of Public Safety. For her, employment is
not enough. She became active in Central Union Church and in the Republican
Party. Conservative views brought with her from Thailand made our GOP a good
fit, she says. In 1996 she was an
alternate delegate from Hawaii to the GOP National Convention in San Diego. As
one of the few Asians there, she got national media exposure an alternate
delegate ordinarily would not have had . SHE lost out for a
Hawaii seat in the 2000 convention that nominated George W. Bush, her personal
presidential choice. He had been sending her Christmas cards for several years. In December she got
three personal invitations to attend the Jan. 20 presidential inaugural -- one
from the Committee for the Presidential Inaugural, a second from the Bush
organization and a third from the GOP leadership of the U.S. Senate. This also
invited her to become a member of the Republican Senatorial Inner Circle. As her invited guest
she took a sister who is a school superintendent in northern Thailand. They
stopped first in Perkasie, Pa., for three days with her late husband's son. In Washington, from the
Hilton Hotel on Connecticut Avenue, they got to the inaugural on time via the
Metro underground system. Hawaii's Republican state chairwoman, Linda Lingle,
took a cab, got stuck in traffic and heard the ceremonies via the cab radio. Now Mrs. White wants to
see more of Washington. Next year she will be a Republican challenger for the
congressional seat held by Democrat Neil Abercrombie. She is a very, very dark
horse but also a very determined person. America is richer for
having accepted her as a citizen. A.A. Smyser is the contributing editor |
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This web pages was last edited on Thursday, September 19, 2002 |
