Lebanon, NH – Hyun Hee Kim (legal name Young Sol Shin) of Lebanon, NH, passed away on February 25, 2026, after complications from a fall.
Hyun Hee was born in Daegu, Korea on August 13, 1945. As an adult, she become a master knitter who taught valuable skills to many hundreds of people in four countries.
In 1980, Hyun Hee and Jean Sibley created their first knitting cooperative, HyunHee Handknits, to assist Vietnamese refugee women living in Seoul. In 1979 and again in 1981, Hyun-hee taught knitting to Hmong refugees from Laos at Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand. From 1984-1986, Hyun Hee lived in Nepal with the Sibleys, where another knitting cooperative, Himalayan Handknits, was formed and hundreds more people, most living in extreme poverty, learned a skill to generate much-needed income.
In 1985, Hyun Hee married Young Chul Shin. The couple relocated to the Upper Valley in 1987, and bought their house in Lebanon in 1994. Hyun Hee and Jean Sibley formed two more nonprofit knitting cooperatives in Littleton/Lisbon and Canaan/Danbury/Grafton/Enfield. For fourteen years Hyun Hee worked for Geokan in Lebanon. In addition, she was an accomplished chef, gardener, and yarn crafter.
Hyun Hee is survived, in the U.S., by her husband, Young Chul Shin, her son, Benjamin Myeung Han, and a niece, Hyun Hwa Cha, of New York, as well as four generations of her extended family, the Sibleys; and in Korea, three younger sisters, fifteen nieces and nephews, and twenty grand-nieces and grand-nephews.
In lieu of flowers, please send any gifts to the Haven, 713 Hartford Ave., White River Junction, VT 05001 (https://uppervalleyhaven.org/donate/online-giving/). An online guestbook is available to leave a message of condolence at https://www.rickerfuneralhome.com.
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