Nancy was born in Beijing, China on December 25, 1925. She graduated from Ginling Women’s College in 1949, and shortly thereafter left China for Hong Kong. In 1950, she married Alan Chen Ming Lin, and in 1955, she along with Alan and their two-year-old daughter immigrated to the United States under the Refugee Relief Act of 1953. In 1961, she became a United States citizen and changed her married name from Yen Gin Tao Lin, to Nancy Tao Lin.
Nancy began her career in the United States at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco. After moving to the Washington, DC area in the early 1960s, she continued to work in banking until retiring in the 1980s. She loved gardening, was a terrific cook, and after retirement became an excellent Chinese painter, practiced Tai Chi, and took long daily walks at Leisure World where she lived for more than 23 years.
Nancy was a wife, mother, aunt, sister, as well as a great friend to everyone she met. She was preceded in death by her husband Alan in 2005 and her brother James in 2016. She is survived by her three daughters, Maria Hocking and her husband Conrad; Pearl Smisko and her husband Mike; and Julia Lin-Peczkowski and her husband Greg, as well as five grandchildren; Stephanie, Alan, and Daniel Smisko, and Jonathan and Sara Peczkowski; and four great grandchildren. Nancy cared deeply about her family and friends, and she will always be with us in our hearts.
A Memorial service will be held at Hines-Rinaldi Funeral Home, in Silver Spring, Maryland beginning at 10:30 a.m., followed by interment at Parklawn Memorial Park, in Rockville, Maryland.
