the monarchy, as he feared that its return would challenge his emerging authority as the new republic's founding father. (Ironically Rhee himself was of the House of YI; Rhee's family traced its lineage back to King Taejong of Joseon, and was a 16th-generation descendant of Grand Prince Yangnyeong.) Rhee seized and nationalized most of the family's properties, and the imperial family was also blamed on being responsible for the "collapse of the nation". According to the prince's 11th son, Yi Seok, his mother, Hong Chongsun, was forced to sell noodles as a street vendor to make a living. Stripped of most of their wealth and authority, some family members fled to the United States and Latin America, known descendants reside in New Jersey and New York. For instance, Amy Lee (Yi Haegyeong), the fifth daughter of Yi Kang, migrated to the United States in 1956 and worked for 27 years as a librarian at Columbia University in New York City. In September, 2012, she was 82 years old and described as "one of the last survivors of the Korean royal court". Among Prince Yi Kang's surviving four sons and seven daughters, four lost touch with the family after they left for the United States. The other family members held an ancestral ritual twice a year for Prince Yi Kang, but usually only two or three of the 11 surviving siblings attended the ceremonies. Meanwhile, the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association was founded in 1957, and the members consist of the descendants of the royal family from various cadet branches of the clan. It was only in 1963 that a new president, Park Chung-hee, allowed some of the imperial family members, including Princess Deokhye, to return to Korea. However, they could only stay at Nakseon Hall, a small residence in a corner of Changdeokgung in Seoul; the place was previously reserved for widowed queen/empress dowagers. Yi Un also became the director of the Jeonju Lee Royal Family Association, on 29 July 1966; the title would later pass down to his son in 1973. Yi Un died seven years later, in 1970, after a long illness resulting from strokes. Yi Un's son, Yi Ku, was forced by other family members to divorce his American wife, Julia Mullock, in 1982 due to her sterility (the couple, however, had an adopted daughter). In 1998, it was reported that Yi Kang's eighth son died alone