TexasEscapes.com HOME Welcome to Texas Escapes
A magazine written by Texas
Custom Search
New   |   Texas Towns   |   Ghost Towns   |   Counties   |   Trips   |   Features   |   Columns   |   Architecture   |   Images   |   Archives   |   Site Map

Citizen Kate

Kate Wong Troesser

webmaster
www.texasescapes.com
Kate Wong Troesser

Kate's earliest years were as refugee in her own country. She was carried by her mother, running with a group of women and children trying to stay one village ahead of the invading Japanese Army. During the brief peace between WWII and the Revolution, she attended kindergarten in Canton. In 1949 the revolution forced her family to join the exodus to Macao, which was then a tiny picturesque Portuguese Colony with a quaint combination of Mediterranean and Chinese culture; a tropical peninsula, where a child's daily companions were crickets, dragonflies and silkworms. Kate spent her formative years in Macao and it's where she first fell in love with a "place". Later her family moved to Hong Kong, which was yet another culture combination - this time British and Chinese. There she received an English education in an American Catholic high school.

Her father left his one-room school at the age of 14 to care for a large extended family. He went on to become a poet, teacher, writer, and editor of a succession of major newspapers long before he reached the age of 30. One of his novels was turned into a movie. He took his children to American movies where he read the Chinese subtitles while the kids absorbed the language. The family may not have known they were watching "film noir" - but Mr. Wong knew what he liked. His gene for reading and education was passed to each of the Wong children along with an appreciation for James Cagney, Edward G. Robinson and Humphry Bogart movies.

Her father's words to her as he sent his daughter to the other side of the world were: "Remember, that your actions in America will not be seen as the actions of Kate Wong, but as the actions of a Chinese."


Kate came to the United States via a slow boat from China, for things were still unhurried in 1965. It was a time when one could look up at the Golden Gate Bridge instead of looking down on it from 30,000 feet. On her trip across the Southwest by bus, she was amazed that each town seemed to be having a festival. She later learned the flags were used-car lot pennants. She attended Texas Woman's University in Denton where she earned a Bachelor's Degree in Library Science in three years. She worked summers - but not in Texas. She got a job at a resort in the Catskills of New York State.

After graduation, she worked as a Houston children's librarian by day and a cocktail waitress by night - a combination you seldom hear of anymore (that's what one does when one has many younger brothers and sisters). She then moved to New York, where she attended City University of New York. There she earned a Master's Degree in Speech Pathology. She was amused when the city of New York appropriated her personal phrase of "I Love New York" and used it to promote tourism.

Her artistic side eventually led her to a career in freelance textile design, where she designed linen patterns - some of which were recently displayed as far away as a London boutique. When she returned to Houston to comply with an immigration directive, her experience in design led to art restoration and later yet another career in conservation framing, where she worked with some of Houston's most prestigious interior designers.


John and Kate met in 1990 and were married shortly thereafter in Paris (Arkansas).

Sometimes addressed by her childhood friends as "Cat" - after naturalization she was known to her movie-buff friends as "Citizen Kate."

When the time came to build Texas Escapes, being a computer illiterate, she had to start from less than ground zero. Once again, her artistic instinct and Library Science training came through.

Since becoming webmaster for Texas Escapes, she discovered the many layers of Texas she never got to see when she worked and studied in Denton, and came to understand and admire Texans' pride in their state. By now she has lived in Texas longer than anywhere else in her meandering journey through life. It has become a place she now loves as much as she once loved New York, or Macao.


John Troesser, May 2001


More Staff | Contributors

Texas Escapes Online Magazine »   Archive Issues » Home »
TEXAS TOWNS & COUNTIES TEXAS LANDMARKS & IMAGES TEXAS HISTORY & CULTURE TEXAS OUTDOORS MORE
Texas Counties
Texas Towns A-Z
Texas Ghost Towns

TEXAS REGIONS:
Central Texas North
Central Texas South
Texas Gulf Coast
Texas Panhandle
Texas Hill Country
East Texas
South Texas
West Texas

Courthouses
Jails
Churches
Schoolhouses
Bridges
Theaters
Depots
Rooms with a Past
Monuments
Statues

Gas Stations
Post Offices
Museums
Water Towers
Grain Elevators
Cotton Gins
Lodges
Stores
Banks

Vintage Photos
Historic Trees
Cemeteries
Old Neon
Ghost Signs
Signs
Murals
Gargoyles
Pitted Dates
Cornerstones
Then & Now

Columns: History/Opinion
Texas History
Small Town Sagas
Black History
WWII
Texas Centennial
Ghosts
People
Animals
Food
Music
Art

Books
Cotton
Texas Railroads

Texas Trips
Texas Drives
Texas State Parks
Texas Rivers
Texas Lakes
Texas Forts
Texas Trails
Texas Maps
USA
MEXICO
HOTELS

Site Map
About Us
Privacy Statement
Disclaimer
Contributors
Staff
Contact Us

 
Website Content Copyright Texas Escapes LLC. All Rights Reserved