Okpun Wallick was born in Gunsan, South Korea in 1962. She is the oldest of eight siblings and attended college to study fishery management before holding different jobs ranging from a shoe saleswoman on an Air Force base to a cashier in a bar. After she met her husband, an American soldier serving in the Air Force stationed in South Korea, she immigrated to the United States in 1988. She first immigrated to Davenport, Iowa with her husband, where she attended ESL classes and got a job as a busboy through a church friend. She then moved to Phoenix, Arizona before moving to the Houston area in 2006. She currently works part-time as an ink technician while raising her four children.
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