May
Leila Ianthe May
Daily Gleaner, December 23, 1904
The Misses Facey established their school at the start of the 20th century and it continued to operate until the death of Zona Facey in 1929
May on holiday in Jamaica in 1934
In November 1905 eleven year old May Phang collected shillings and sixpences from her mother, the servants in the house, the clerks in the store and Dr Stimpson, for the Gleaner's fund to provide Christmas dinners for the poor.
The Phang girls were clearly expected to be good citizens, and as they grew older they contributed their musical talents to a variety of fund raising concerts, especially during the 1914-18 war.
Daily Gleaner, September 10, 1909
PORT KINGSTON SAILS.
The Direct Line str. Port Kingston Captain Owen Jones, sailed yesterday
afternoon for Bristol with a large cargo of island produce and a full passenger list. The following are the passengers:-
. . . Miss L Leahong. Miss M. Leahong, Miss C. Leahong, . . . Miss M. Phang, Miss H Phang, Miss R. Phang . . . .
After May Phang sailed for England with her sisters Rosalind and Hilda, and her Leahong cousins, on the Port Kingston in September 1909, she dropped out of view in Jamaica, and it was only when she visited the island on holiday in 1934 that there was an update on her life.
In August 1920 May Phang passed through Ellis Island on her way to Shanghai, China, as two of her sisters had done the previous year. [I still haven't found out where Hilda went!]
CLICK TO ENLARGE
Daily Gleaner, August 31, 1934
Miss May Phang Here From Far Away China On Holiday
Her Native Land, In The Mysterious East Going Ahead
Bringing back with her on a six weeks' vacation to the land of her birth, the almost haunting charms of the Far East, its wide scope for study and still more study, and above all its evident frank sincerity, Miss May Phang, a daughter of Mr. Chas. Phang, well-known merchant of Balaclava, St. Elizabeth, arrived in Kingston yesterday morning in the s.s Calamares. from New York.
Miss Phang was born in Kingston, which fact made her reference to the great land of China the home of her forefathers the more interesting to the Pressman during her talk yesterday morning. She went to China fifteen years ago, and found it, as she had always planned to find it, a very very interesting country indeed.
For the past eleven years she has been working with the National City Bank of New York, in Tientsin, which is very near to Pekin, the old capital, and she has followed the affairs of the wonderful country with very much more than passing interest.
She left Tientsin several weeks ago on a well-earned vacation and spent two months in the U S A, her headquarters being the residence of her brother-in-law, Mr. George E. Sokolsky, who is a very well known writer in New York City.
Now that she is here in Jamaica Miss Phang's engagements will no doubt be heavy, looking up old friends, if these can be considered 'old,' judging by her youth when she left here and renewing friendships. She will no doubt tell them of the great strides being made in China, as she hinted in her interview and the effort for closer friendship with all peoples.
The progress of China she feels is silent and steady and her sons and daughters are loyal to whatever obligations they may owe her. Miss Phang looks forward to her vacation here with much pleasure, and will sail in another six weeks via the USA, to resume her work in Tientsin.
Madame Soohih
Institute of Jamaica's Silver Musgrave Medal 1970 for her contribution in Dance
Daily Gleaner, January 8, 1970
"A Jamaican Chinese" as she likes to describe herself, she was born in Kingston (on the first day of May, hence her name) the second daughter of seven, to the late Mr. and Mrs. Charles Phang of Balaclava, St Elizabeth, where she grew up,
She left the island at an early age to attend school in England, and later study at the Royal Academy of Music, London, after which she spent twenty-five years in China. It was there that she studied ballet. Her parents — from one of the oldest Chinese families in the island — were “not keen" on her lifelong interest in ballet. "In the old days" Madame explains, “good-class Chinese girls never went on stage." So all on her own, she set about to learn ballet financed solely by her earnings as a secretary, l was a good secretary, too, she remembers, one of the chief confidential secretaries in the First National City Bank in Tiensin, in Northern China.
"And I was lucky," she says "that many well-known Russian ballet teachers came into China at that time — it was after the Russian Revolution.'"
Although it was difficult, she reflects, "I feel quite proud that I financed my ballet training myself, personally." And there are other things to be glad about. As well as meeting and marrying her husband during this time, her musical training has come in very useful — she has always been in charge of that aspect of the school.
After an accident in China, she turned to teaching. "But ballet was always a hobby with me" she says, "it was my husband who was the professional."
Daily Gleaner, May 7, 1947
Coming in by Panam Montego Bay Clipper was Mrs. May Phang Soohih, daughter of the late Mr. Charles Phang of Balaclava who had been in China for many years. She is here to take up residence.
Daily Gleaner, September 11, 1947
Mr. Anatole (Tony) Soohih, Russian dancer from the Far East, . . . arrived by plane on Sunday on a visit to his wife, Mrs. May Phang Soohih. Mrs. Soohih, a daughter of Mrs. Mary Phang and the late Charles Phang of Balaclava, St. Elizabeth, arrived in the island a few months ago to recuperate from an illness incurred during the period of the long drawn out Sino-Japanese hostilities.
Anatoly Ivanovich Soohih died in 1950.
SOOHIH—Anatoli: Beloved husband of May Soohih, died June 2nd, and was buried the same afternoon at H. W. T. Parish Church.
[The name [Сухой = Dry] presumably transliterated as Soohih might probably better be written Sukhoi.]
Tony Soohih established the Soohih Studio of Dancing, later the Soohih School of Dance , in 1948, and May Soohih continued to run the School very successfully up to the time of her tragic death in the summer of 1971. The School continued to operate for another term under the administration of Easton Lee. Mme Soohih and her dancers were involved in a wide variety of activities and made a significant contribution to the development of dance in Jamaica.
Both Tony Soohih and then May Soohih were involved with dance sequences in Little Theatre Movement pantomimes, such as "Bluebeard and Brer Anancy" and "Anancy and Beeny Bud".
Daily Gleaner, June 13, 1971
SOOHIH—May. Died under tragic circumstances on the 5th inst., leaving sisters Lucille, Gladys and Mildred Phang (England), Hilda Doran (U.S.A.), Inez Fernandez (Cuba). Funeral service at Kingston Parish Church at 5 00 p.m. today and interment at St. Andrew Parish Church Cemetery.
'Do we not live in the security of overlooked and forgotten facts?'
George Sokolsky, husband of Rosalind Phang, 1933.
The Phang Sisters of Jamaica
