Hundreds Mourn Yen Do, a ‘Legend in Little Saigon’

Hundreds celebrated Thursday the legacy of Yen Do, who founded the nation’s first Vietnamese newspaper in his garage in 1978 and saw it become the largest daily in the country serving that community.

Packing the pews in the light-filled sanctuary of St. Barbara’s Roman Catholic Church in Santa Ana, mourners wept, sang and prayed during the 90-minute service.

Do, founder of the Nguoi Viet Daily News, is widely regarded as a visionary who created enduring ties for the region’s Vietnamese emigre community.

“Yen Do is a legend in Little Saigon,” Ken Nguyen, chairman of the Little Saigon Foundation, said after the service. “This is a great loss to our community.”

Do, 65, died Aug. 17 of complications from diabetes and kidney disease.

On Thursday morning, his daughter, Anh, clutched a metal crucifix and his son, Tung, carried a large picture of their father as they entered the church with his casket. Do’s relatives wore white sashes around their foreheads, a traditional symbol of mourning.

After the Mass, the casket was driven past the Nguoi Viet headquarters on Moran Street in Westminster.

“His body will be buried, but his spirit, soul and love lives on,” said Father Thai Nguyen. “His legacy will be carried on by the people he once touched.”

Do “leaves behind knowledge, understanding and love for all who came to know him, especially those who had the privilege to work with him,” he said.

Do’s journalism career began when he was 12, working for a high school underground newspaper in Saigon. During his teens, he led student protests against the South Vietnamese government to seek more student scholarships and upgraded classrooms. He was arrested and suspended from school for protesting. He later worked as a reporter and editor for several publications before he became an interpreter, working with U.S. and French journalists.

Do and his family were among the first Vietnamese immigrants to arrive at Camp Pendleton in 1975, after the fall of Saigon.

Using $4,000 he had saved, Do printed 2,000 copies of the first edition of Nguoi Viet, which means “Vietnamese People,” on Dec. 6, 1978. The newspaper was then a four-page weekly Do printed in his Garden Grove garage.

It provided information to refugees, whose lives were upended by the Vietnam War, and guided them with articles on how to adjust to their new land. It reconnected loved ones separated by the chaos of the war’s end and offered tips on how to register children for school and how to obtain a driver’s license.

Nguoi Viet today, with more than 70 employees and a circulation of about 18,000, is known worldwide. It publishes an English section, which Do’s daughter edits, and a Vietnamese yellow pages.

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Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this report.