Mrs. Yvonne Liu Chou, a former Chinese school teacher, who lived in Palo Alto for 20 years (1978-1998), has died at the age of 97. She passed away at Fremont's Kaiser Permanente Hospital on Christmas Day of natural causes. Her husband, Tsien-Chung Chou, a professor of European history and a Chinese diplomat to the United Nations died at age 98 in 2000. Mrs. Chou moved with her husband to Palo Alto from New York City in 1978 after his retirement. They celebrated their Diamond 60th Wedding Anniversary in Palo Alto in 1994.

While her husband visited Stanford Hoover Library daily on weekdays, Yvonne carried a lively correspondence with dozens of friends and relatives in China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. Her favorites books were literary biographies and essays. She often contributed articles in Chinese magazines and newspapers. Her uncle Liu Fengzhang (1859-1935) was an Education Minister in Hupei, and a scholar on the I Ching. His commentaries Zhou Yi Ji Zhu originally published 1934 was long out of print. She reprinted this scholarly work in 1982, adding 28 pages in the appendix on her uncle's life, including a rare photo she took of him. She donated copies to major U.S. Libraries which were gratefully acknowledged. Mrs. Chou enjoyed tending roses and a vegetable garden in Palo Alto. They moved to a retirement home in Sunnyvale in late 1997 and she moved to Aegis Gardens, Fremont in 2003.

Yvonne Liu was born on October 6, 1908 (lunar calendar) in Hupei, China. Her Chinese name Tun-ch'in means generous and diligent, which characterized her whole life. Her father was a bank accountant and mother a homemaker. She had two elder brothers (one in the military, the other a physician), a younger sister (educator), and younger brother (pharmacist). She graduated valedictorian from Hupei Normal School in 1930. She was offered teaching positions at five schools based on her essay "Knowledge is Power".

At the age of 92, she recited from memory this essay. Taking off on Francis Bacon's essay, she said that "we first receive knowledge from our parents at home on ethics, to be a good citizen in society. Then we receive knowlege from our teachers in school on arts & science, to learn about the world around us. Finally, we give back what we have learned to future generations, teaching them the knowledge of goodness and wisdom. Thus knowledge empowers us, and this is the power of knowledge."

Yvonne was an innovative teacher in school using the Montessori method of teaching. She took many black & white Agfa photos of school children in drama and musicals which she wrote and directed. Her husband taught in universities at Wuhan, Chengdu, and Shanghai. They came to the United States in 1949 with their three children and lived in New York before moving to Palo Alto in 1978.

She was a great cook and hostess, having dinner parties for over 20 guests often. Many of the young Chinese students of friends stayed over at their house in New York. She was a successful matchmaker, getting four couples married. Chinese legends say a decade is added to people's lives if they are successful in each matchmaking. Those couples remember her fondly, calling her "Chou Ma Ma", sending her cards and phoning her on Mother's Day. One even wrote an article about her that was published in a Chinese newspaper, extolling her generous hospitality and kindness, opening her home in Floral Park as "a home away from home" when they arrived in America.

She is survived by her younger brother Liu Tun-jian of Nanchang, China, sons Peter Y. Chou of Mountain View and James Chou of San Jose, daughter Margaret Cheng of Palo Alto and New York, grandchildren André Cheng and Elisa Cheng Lubin, and Emily, Marissa, and Byron Chou, and great-grandsons Matthew and Christopher Cheng. A memorial service will be held at Roller & Hapgood & Tinney, at 980 Middlefield Road, Palo Alto, on Saturday, December 31, at 3 pm. Burial at Skylawn Memorial Park, San Mateo, on Monday, January 2, at 10 am.