Helped Popularize Nectarines : Leo C. Song, Pioneer in L.A.’s Koreatown

Leo C. Song, a Korean-American patriot whose accomplishments ranged from popularizing the nectarine to sponsoring dozens of his fellow countrymen in his adopted land, is dead at age 92.

He died Feb. 27 in Los Angeles where he had been among the first, if not the first, member of his nationality to settle in what is now known as Koreatown in the Central City.

Born in Kumsan in 1894 to a family of scholars and government officials, Song migrated to the United States in 1916 at a time when Koreans were being admitted to this country by President Woodrow Wilson at the behest of Syngman Rhee, whom Wilson knew as a student at Princeton. Rhee was to become president of South Korea when the nation was partitioned after World War II.

Walked Past Guards

Song literally walked unmolested past Japanese guards (Japan was then governing Korea) across a bridge and into China where he caught a ship with a friendly captain who helped smuggle him to San Francisco.

He and a few friends here began as rice farmers near Sacramento, but floods ruined their crops and Song moved to Los Angeles where he attended Polytechnic High School and UCLA before graduating from UC Berkeley with a degree in electrical engineering.

About this time, 1921, said his son, Gary, Song and Rhee co-founded the Dong Ji Hoi Society, dedicated to Korean independence. Song remained an active supporter until last year.

In 1927 Song started K & S Jobbers, a wholesale fruit and vegetable company in Los Angeles where he sold grapes and later--after meeting Fred Anderson, the man who first bred the popular variety of nectarines--a hybrid of peach and plum. Song was credited with developing the market for the now-popular fruit.

In the 1920s, Rhee, now the president of a Korean provisional government based in Shanghai, came to the United States to set up an American support committee. Song became one of the founding members of that group.

Founded Church

In 1921, Song founded the Korean Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, the first devoted solely to his people. He also was editor of the North American Korean Times from 1920 to 1945.

In 1930 Song risked a return to Korea where he taught electrical engineering at a college in Seoul, but he was soon forced out by the Japanese.

After the Korean War ended in 1953, Song headed a relief effort in the United States and soon was sponsoring dozens of Korean students who settled here after that conflict.

He was founder of the Korean Community Center and the Moo Kung Hwa school devoted to Korean cultural affairs. For these and his other efforts, in 1955 he was awarded the highest civilian award the Korean government can grant--the Ai Kook Chang. It was given him by his old friend Rhee.

Awarded Honorary Degrees

In the 1960s and ‘70s Song was awarded honorary degrees from South Korean universities, attended conferences with Korea’s new president, Chung Hee Park, and at home set up Korean anti-communist groups.

When Los Angeles established a sister city program with Pusan, Song played a leading role in coordinating relations between the cities.

By this time his home on Gramercy Place had become a focal point for newly arrived and established Koreans celebrating the holidays peculiar to their new land--Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Song’s survivors include his wife, Rose, and three other sons.