Vicki Beaton has lived at ACC Greenhaven Terrace Independent Living for four years. News clippings and magazine articles about her are strewn throughout her apartment. She pushes them aside and reaches for a pile of books, “Here’s a book of short stories I wrote,” she says matter of factly. “I also wrote these romance novels.” There are four or five of them.
On the wall are photos of her with Jackie Chan, Gavin Newsom, and Dr. Sun Yat Sen’s granddaughter whom she accompanied to Vancouver in 2015. Another photo shows Dr. Henry Lee of OJ fame eating pasta at her house. Then there’s the table cloth that her neighbor, March Fong Eu, gave her and the prestigious 2019 Directors Award she received from the California State Railroad Museum, still wrapped in plastic. It’s hard to connect all the dots.
Vicki Beaton was born Tsui Yi-Wen in Tianjin, China. She and her family fled to Taiwan when the Communists came to power. She went to work as a secretary for the U.S.-Taiwan Defense Command in the 1960s.
Vicki’s boss was a colonel and intelligence officer in the United States Air Force. It was a very tense time in U.S.-China relations.
“My first husband was Austin Shen,” says Vicki. “He was a very nice man but died when he was only 39. I was 34. He left me with three children.”
To make extra money, Vicki wrote short stories for China Daily News, Central News, and United Daily. She had a curious mind and a dynamic way of talking about everyday life. It certainly reflected in her personality.
This, among other things, caught the eye of her boss, the colonel. Long story short, Colonel Clifford Merrill Beaton fell in love with Vicki, he proposed, she said yes, and they tied the knot. After his deployment ended, Clifford, Vicki and the three children, two boys and one girl, moved to Omaha, Nebraska.
Vicki was immediately cold and bored in Omaha. “Good beef, good corn, so what!” she exclaimed. As a freelancer, Vicki continued to write about her American experiences to the delight of her readers in Taiwan.
Clifford retired two years later. He asked Vicki where she wanted to move. She pleaded, “Some place warmer!” One of Clifford’s former deputies recently retired at Mather Air Force Base. Clifford arranged a trip to visit his old friend and check out Sacramento.
“I still remember driving down Capitol Mall in early summer. It just rained and everything was green and beautiful. I told Clifford this is it, we’re staying!”
Clifford got a job a Bank of America, while Vicki worked for Sacramento Unified School District as a substitute secretary and later as a teaching assistant at Will C. Wood Jr. High.
Back at the District’s office on N Street, Vicki met Eleanor Yin Chiang, PhD. The two bonded. They were both born in China and were the only Chinese-speaking employees in the building. “We went for long walks, sang karaoke, and became best friends,” says Vicki.
They had a mutual interest helping Chinese people like themselves succeed in America. Together they founded Sacramento Chinese Service Center and Chinese New Year Culture Association. They were also early supporters of Sacramento Chinese Culture Foundation.
Vicki said Eleanor changed her life because she built up her confidence. “I learned how to talk to higher-ups and to carry myself even to the point where some people thought I was the PhD, not Eleanor!” Vicki says laughing.
One day, Vicki’s Taiwanese publishers asked her to write some articles for their U.S. newspaper The World Journal. It was a temporary assignment that turned into a 15-year run as their West Coast reporter. Vicki was like a Chinese Mark Twain, chronicling life in the U.S. to the delight of Chinese readers everywhere. The State Capitol was part of her beat. She covered Arnold Schwarzenegger and visiting VIPs like John McCain and George Bush. She also interviewed Yo Yo Ma.
One of Vicki’s favorite articles is “Ai Wo, Ai Jia, Ai Wo Guo” (Love Me, Love My Family, Love My Country). She describes how her husband Clifford Beaton unconditionally loved everything about her despite their vast cultural differences. They were happily married for 38 years before his passing 11 years ago.
Vicki also wrote a glowing story about living in Sacramento “Wo Zhu Xia Jia Men Du.” Then one day she met a stranger, a Chinese man. He and his family took the train all the way from New York to Sacramento to settle down. She asked him how he heard about Sacramento. He said it was from an article written by Tsui Yi-Wen. “I told him, that’s me!” says Vicki. “I couldn’t believe it!”
In the 1980s, Eleanor introduced Vicki to her brother C.C. Yin who just had bought his first McDonald’s franchise. C.C. and Vicki would go on to collaborate on several community organizations and causes even to this day. In 2001, C.C. founded Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs Association (APAPA). Vicki was a founding member.
In the same year, Vicki was the president of Sacramento Chinese Culture Foundation. She collaborated with Professor Peter Leung from UC Davis and Dr. Alex Yeh to publish the 270-page book, “150 Years of the Chinese Presence in California.” This was the seminal book that influenced her and others to continue studying and promoting the contributions of Chinese in America. Vicki had already been writing articles about Chinese in America for World Journal but not always about their contributions to American society. Now she was all in.
In 2007, Vicki wrote about the life and times of the Chinese railroad workers and their contributions to the Transcontinental Railroad. In 2017, she became a docent at the California State Railroad Museum and its only Chinese speaker.
Vicki inspired C.C. Yin and their friend Margaret Wong to establish the US-China Railroad Friendship Association (USCRFA) with Ms. Zhang Wei from UC Davis as its then and current president. On October 26, 2019, USCRFA organized “The Last Mile,” a celebration of the contributions of Chinese railroad workers on the 150th anniversary of the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
Today Vicki shows no signs of slowing down. In addition to her civic activities, she volunteers at ACC’s Welcome Center. She also translated ACC’s 40-page Caregivers Resource Guide into Chinese.
Vicki is happy living at ACC Greenhaven Terrace. When asked how she decided to move there, she said, “I’ve written several stories about ACC and Donna Yee over the years. I guess you could say I did my research.”
