Jean Tsai

Jean C. L. Tsai, the beloved wife, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to her family, passed away in her home on February 21, 2025. A more than fifty-year resident of Baton Rouge, she bravely traversed an ocean and a vast continent away from the place of her birth to come to the United States, raise her four children and empower their success.

Born on August 28, 1933, she was the seventh daughter in a big and bustling household of 13 children run by her father, a prosperous and prominent doctor, in the historical port of Lukang, Taiwan. Her quiet, refined beauty made her a beloved daughter of the family. Quick-minded and analytical, she attended high school in neighboring Changhua city at a time when it was rare for young women to pursue their education beyond middle school. With a sharp mind and a knack for numbers, she excelled at school and was a math whiz. She earned the top scores in her classes and even won first place in several high school math competitions.

After graduation, she worked as an elementary school teacher and sewing instructor. Then she met and married Thomas C. H. Tsai, who became her lifelong love and husband. Before falling in love with him, quite a few others had asked for her hand in marriage, but she didn’t give them a second look, preferring to marry someone for love. The couple fell deeply in love, and she was drawn to his smarts and his gumption having come up from humble beginnings to test into and graduate from the most prestigious college in Taiwan, Tai Da University, a rare accomplishment in the small town they grew up in.

That marriage eventually would carry her thousands of miles and an ocean away to the United States. After her husband won a prestigious scholarship at a chemistry Ph.D. program in the U.S. she remained in Taiwan for three years, raising her three young sons all the age of four and under, Michael, John and her youngest, Timothy, with whom she was still six months pregnant, shouldering the responsibility of their upbringing as sole parent with the help of extended family. Yet, she faced the challenge with grit, strength and resolve, and by focusing on the things she was grateful for, whenever possible. In those days, being granted such an opportunity to study in the U.S. was like “winning the lottery,” she would say, despite the fact she very much missed and longed to be with her other half.

More than three years later, when she finally was able to join her husband with their three young boys in the United States, she landed in the middle of a snowy Connecticut winter of a remote, wooded college town, and she missed the lively, social bustle of the Taiwanese towns where she lived. Although entitled to a substantial family inheritance, she decided to forgo it to keep the peace within her birth family, and then took to devoting herself to making a beautiful and comfortable home for her family, despite having more modest means. Astute and financially savvy, she had a keen eye for making wise investments and the resourcefulness to stretch her dollars to build generational wealth. With her money, she was always exceedingly generous, lavishing her kids, grandkids and great grandkids, always in hopes of paving the way for their security and future success.

A dedicated, hardworking and fully devoted mother, she raised her kids with great love, care and concern. A strong and tireless worker, she encouraged her children to excel in their studies and taught them to speak up for themselves, too. Rather than being strict and exacting with her kids about their grades, demanding the highest of marks - “Tiger mom-style” - she understood the way to motivate her children was to set high standards and then lovingly praise them for their talents and accomplishments, which encouraged her children to want to do their best.

At the same time, she set high standards for herself, leading by example, never wallowing in her hardship, emphasizing the importance of a good education, and trying to make the best of difficult situations. She kept her home immaculately clean, getting on her hands and knees to scrub floors every night. A faithful nurturer of the green plants and flowers, she could make a multitude of plants in an assortment of pots grow and flourish in her backyard and throughout her home.

And she orchestrated the most elaborate of family feasts, taking special care to cook the favorite dishes of every one of her many kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids, so that no one left the dinner table, hungry or forgotten. Never one to miss the milestone birthdays and graduations of her children and grandchildren, she’d stop at nothing to be there for them, even flying thousands of miles coast-to-coast to celebrate, congratulate and cheer them on. She would express to her children how proud she was of them. She took seriously her role as mother, protector, provider and guardian of her family. And because of her example, she taught all of her children the very essence of caring for their own families with great love and attentiveness, as well as with a passion and fierceness, too.

Active members of both the Baton Rouge Taiwanese-American and Chinese-American associations, she and her husband for many decades thrived socially, attending and hosting countless potluck dinners, ballroom dance galas and karaoke parties. In fact, she and her husband could be found in their heyday on most weekend nights with friends, burning up the dance floor, with the waltz, tango, fox trot and Texas two-step. Both loved singing and dancing, and in fact, were among the first to bring the karaoke craze home to American shores, fresh after being introduced to it during a visit to Taiwan. Early pioneers and adopters of the karaoke machine, they wowed friends and family with the glories of crooning to instrumental versions of the hits of their day, years before it became ubiquitous throughout the U.S. She and her husband, along with friends and family, could beautifully belt out American anthems and love songs from the past, such as Edelweiss and Moon River, alongside a repertoire of other Taiwanese, Chinese and Japanese golden oldies.

Growing up in a household back in Taiwan that was exceedingly cautious and wary by nature, she distinguished herself with a courageous streak and fierce determination that impressed everyone in her native family. Not only did she raise four kids in a country where she had to learn the oddities of a new language and customs, she fought, defended and advocated for her children in a foreign tongue and in a land that treated her at times as a stranger.

Although nothing comforted her more than hanging out in her home, sitting in her favorite chair in her living room and cleaning her bright sunny-colored kitchen floor until it gleamed, she still ventured to the world’s four corners, voyaging to far-flung places with her husband, family, and friends. She and her husband journeyed around the world by cruise ship and bus tour to take in the wonders of such countries as Italy, Greece, Portugal, France, Thailand, Turkey, Brazil, Peru, Malaysia, Russia, Egypt, Jordan, India and Dubai. In recent years, just as the world was awakening from a Covid-induced slumber, she traveled with her children on cruises to Alaska’s Glacier Bay, where she danced and stayed up late into the night, and as recently as the past Christmas, toughed it out alongside her husband, and with sons beside her, trekking on sightseeing trails in Mexico and the Western Caribbean. Her last summer, six months before she passed away, she even took a road trip to visit Banff, the Columbia Icefields and Lake Louise in Canada, with her husband and daughter’s family, bravely walking on snowy icefields and traversing up the side of the highest of Banff mountains by sky gondola at the age of 90.

Deeply beloved by her family, she will be tremendously missed. She is survived by her husband and four children, Mike, John, Tim and Joyce, and their spouses, as well as seven grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

To her family, who loved her fiercely and will sorely miss her, she’ll forever be in our hearts, dancing, singing and staying up late. We know her spirit will be watching over us, with the greatest love, care and concern, always trying to safeguard her kids, grandchildren and great grandchildren, so they never go hungry and always come home safe.