Family Matriarch From Newark Turns 100, Shares Secret To Long Life – Newark, NJ Patch

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — A family matriarch in Essex County who has lived in three countries and carved out a legacy as an enterprising businesswoman celebrated her 100th birthday on Tuesday.

Gertrude Ray (Chin) is currently residing at the Brookhaven Health Care Center in East Orange after moving to Newark to live with her niece, Bren Chin, when she turned 95. Recently, the centenarian’s family reached out to Patch to wish her a happy birthday, sharing the “secret to her long life” – which includes healthy eating and staying busy.

According to Chin:

“An avid reader, each week [my aunt] would borrow a minimum of two books from the library, with three books being her usual take. She has always eaten healthily … little or no red meat, and steamed foods and vegetables – just as her Chinese father had done it while she was growing up. She practiced Tai Chi every morning and walked every afternoon. She went to the gym up to age 95. In addition, travel and a busy social life rendered balance to her existence.”

“She still has a great sense of humor that brightens everyone’s day,” Chin said of her aunt, adding that Ray “tells it like it is” and is always happy to share a story about her family.

To this day, Ray loves to loves to give fashion advice, her niece added – and it’s no wonder why.

According to Chin and her sister, Francine, Ray was born in Trelawny, Jamaica on June 21, 1922 to parents James Chin Keow from Kwantung, China – a merchant and cook – and Catherine Woolery from Salt Spring, St. James, Jamaica. Her siblings include Clarence Chin, who died in 1976, and Terry Thompson (Chin), who died in 2017.

Ray’s first marriage produced her only child, Anthony Simpson, who died of whooping cough at the age of 5 in 1948.

Ray immigrated to England around 1952, and found employment working in the London garment industry, where she studied fashion design. Along the way, she housed and fed many Jamaican, artists and medical/dental students studying in London during the 1950s – philanthropy that continued throughout her life.

Her second marriage was to an American serviceman stationed in England, and when he was deployed back to America, she followed him to Brooklyn, New York in 1972.

She established a design house in the U.S. – Trudy of London – and expanded to Jamaica in 1971, where she worked as one of the few female tailors in the West Indies, and designed revolutionary formal wear for the administration of then-Prime Minister Michael Manley.

During the 1970s, Ray shuttled between New York, Jamaica and Florida, eventually settling in Miami.

When her brother Clarence died in 1976, Ray returned to Jamaica to take custody of his six children, moving them into her suburban home in the U.S.

“She made sure we still attended school, hired household help to tend to our needs, took us on weekly trips to the country and even made sure that our eldest sibling, Francine Chin, was given a sweet sixteen party,” Chin recalled … all while running a business.

When her health deteriorated after her fall at age 95, Chin, moved Ray to Newark to live with her. She’s currently living at a rehabilitation and nursing home in East Orange until he’s able to be brought back home.

According to Chin, her aunt is a well-rounded person who lives life to the fullest – while also taking care of business:

“[My aunt] has a sophisticated and cosmopolitan outlook, and is a woman before her time. She always had a full house, and was always entertaining her many friends with drinks, food and music. She loves jazz. She’s a strict disciplinarian, but also someone who has a special love for and rapport with younger people. She’s adventurous and a go-getter … she left Jamaica for Europe in 1948 to expand her knowledge and pursue the art of designing as a serious professional.”

“She has been the benefactor and head of our clan for as long as my memory serves,” Chin told Patch, adding a word that describes her aunt: “Perfectionist.”

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