Shoua Ly Thao

In her youth, she had many admirers, peers and adults alike. Her peers admired her beauty while other parents loved her hardworking nature. They hoped one day that she might become their daughter-in-law. While telling her life story to us, she had said, “I am the firstborn and also a girl so I tried to be useful so that my father would not regret that I was not a boy. I had to be the first one up to light the fireplace and the last to go to sleep. My father was most proud of my firewood shed. It was always stacked to the top and he never had to worry about gathering more wood.” When she married her husband, Xang Thao (Xab Thoj), her father cried the most because he would no longer have her to help him around the farm.

After the Vietnam War, she, her husband and four children immigrated to America, landing in Savannah, Georgia first. In this strange new country, she learned English by watching Sesame Street. Big Bird was her teacher. She wanted desperately to start working so she could take care of her family. She and her husband decided to take a three-day bus ride to Texas where job opportunities were more available. She began working and in a few years the family bought their first house. A few years later, they bought their second house where they currently live. The yard was big enough for her to engage in one of her favorite hobbies: gardening. It helped her reconnect to her farming roots. Seeing her vegetables and flowers grow made her very happy.

Shoua loved her church family at First Baptist Church Hmong Mission. Though her declining health had kept her from doing remote ministries, Shoua continued to be active and always stepped up to provide support in completing manual deeds, moral support and sometimes financial needs when she was able. Even while she was often hospitalized for one health problem or another, Shoua was mindful to continue assisting financially in ministry work. Shoua was considered a loving, approachable aunt, grandmother, friend and mother to all who had the privilege to know her.

She passed away on December 31, 2021, at age 75, from complications of cancer. She leaves behind her husband Xang Thao; daughter Chia; son Laly, his wife Dia and their son Ethan; son Keng Su; daughter Mai Koua, her husband Armando and son Isaac; her mother, Lee Xiong; brothers Xeng Ly and Doua Lee; sisters Tia Lee, Shoua Ellis, Chao Stevens. Her spirit now lives in God’s heavenly kingdom, free from worldly pain and trouble.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.rollingoaksfuneralhome.com for the Thao family.