Joseph was born on the border of Kentucky and West "by God" Virginia, where the Hatfields & McCoys feuded for generations over a razorback pig. He is the son of an immigrant from Seoul, Korea and an Irish Catholic nun / former beauty queen (Miss Welch) from the coal mining hollers of West Virginia.
His father, Kim Hak-Lim, was a South Korean POW and left for dead after being marched to exhaustion by North Korean troops. His grandmother, who had secretly followed behind, found him in a cave and nursed him back to health. He had survived by eating crickets and insects. His father eventually bec… Joseph was born on the border of Kentucky and West "by God" Virginia, where the Hatfields & McCoys feuded for generations over a razorback pig. He is the son of an immigrant from Seoul, Korea and an Irish Catholic nun / former beauty queen (Miss Welch) from the coal mining hollers of West Virginia.
His father, Kim Hak-Lim, was a South Korean POW and left for dead after being marched to exhaustion by North Korean troops. His grandmother, who had secretly followed behind, found him in a cave and nursed him back to health. He had survived by eating crickets and insects. His father eventually became a surgeon and was one of the first wave of Korean doctors to immigrate to the US. During his post-residency he married Shirley Jean Daugherty after she left the convent.More
