Bill Yee

Bill Yee was born in Lake Village, AR. His grandfather immigrated to Arkansas in 1921, later bringing Bill’s father, Tin Bow Yee, to America with him in 1926. After several years apprenticing with a relative, Bill’s father opened his first grocery store in 1950, named B&M after Bow and his partner, Ming. Bill’s father had another store called Yee’s Food Land. The store was located on Main St. along with many other Chinese-owned businesses. Yee’s Food Land was a part of a 2-story building that Bill’s father owned. The first floor of the building was rented out to a family who owned a shoe department store. Bill grew up working long hours in his family’s store with his siblings, where he developed practical skills in money management, customer service, and responsibility from a young age.

Bill fondly remembers the Italian, Jewish, and Lebanese communities of Lake Village befriending his family, and especially his mother. He further remembers the local immigrant community befriending his mother. Bill recounts his mother’s large mahjong parties, where she would set up dozens of tables across the store for her friends and members of the Chinese community to play until two or three in the morning, and play up to four times a week. Bill describes his mother as a “very dynamic lady” who was especially social, loved to entertain, and was a people person. His father was quiet yet hard-working.

After college, he returned to help manage the family grocery business before transitioning into a professional career. He later became a state bank examiner and then worked for First Commercial Bank (later acquired by Regions), where he built a career in banking. Bill credits his upbringing in the family store with shaping the interpersonal and financial skills that supported his success in the banking industry. His favorite piece of advice from his dad is to work hard, get a good education, and things will take care of themselves.

Bill was the youngest of six kids, so he was more cut off from Chinese culture. Bill’s parents and siblings speak a dialect of Cantonese called Toisan, but Bill struggled to speak it with them. Additionally, Bill didn’t learn Chinese history like his siblings did growing up. There weren’t as many Chinese American students at the university as there had been when his siblings were there, and Bill didn’t join any Chinese student organizations during his time there. Lucky Eleven dances phased out of the culture by that time, and he wasn’t invested in mahjong like his older brothers. Bill says he wishes he “knew a little bit more about [his] family’s history,” and that “you just don’t understand the value [of] growing up when you’re growing up.”

Story by Kailyn Jeffries, Bryan Lucas, Reagan Barriere, and Patrick Shultz

• 
•