Lew Fung Hai Luke moved from China to Seattle with her husband, Lung Sing Luke, in 1931. They operated a hand laundry in the University District and later ran a grocery store on First Hill. The couple had six children, the eldest of whom was Wing Luke, who became a Seattle City Councilmember in 1962.

Once the last of her children was in college, Mrs. Luke decided to become an American citizen. Her husband had been born in the United States, but Mrs. Luke's busy life and the Chinese Exclusion Act (repealed in 1943) had prevented her from doing this earlier. With the help of her family, she learned to read and write English and to study the other matters needed for naturalization.

On October 21, 1963, Mrs. Luke and her son, Councilman Wing Luke, attended her naturalization ceremony at the US Federal Courthouse. In this image, she signs citizenship papers as her son looks on.

Caption information source: "Mrs. Luke Lived Here 36 Years: City Councilman's Mother Finally Becomes a Citizen", Seattle Post-Intelligencer, October 22, 1963, page 13.
Caption information source: "Wing Luke (1925 - 1965)", by David Takami, HistoryLink.org Essay 2047, January 25, 1999. Retrieved March 13, 2026.