Orchard Road ‘beads uncle’ dies aged 80: 'The beads were his life', says family

SINGAPORE — Rain or shine, in the past 15 years, Oh Ow Kee would make his way to Orchard Road and swing a long chain of giant beads around his neck and waist, entertaining crowds of tourists and shoppers outside Ngee Ann City mall. 

The beads were so important to him that it was one of the first things he asked for when he woke up in the hospital after a car accident in November 2020, his daughter Jan Oh said.

Her 80-year-old father died on June 5, and family members who spoke to TODAY described him as a "passionate" man whose life circled around the wooden woola beads he would swing. 

“The last 15 years or so has been the height of his life, despite his old age,” Ms Oh said. She works as an operations and risk manager at a bank and declined to reveal her age.

“Two weeks before his death, he still made his way to Orchard Road to busk… the beads were his life,” she added.

‘DISCIPLINE MASTER’ 

During her childhood, Ms Oh said that she and her siblings feared their father, who was the “discipline master” of the household.

“If we ever did anything wrong, he would discipline us the traditional way with a cane,” she said of her father who was a rag-and-bone man before he became a busker in 2006.

However, despite his stern demeanour at home, Oh was the happiest when he was swinging the long chain of wooden beads around his waist and neck, she added.

“During family birthdays and celebrations, and even on his own birthday, he doesn't smile much. But when he’s swinging his beads, he has the brightest smile on his face… it was everything to him.” 

She added that this was why the family chose a picture of him with the chain of wooden beads hanging around his neck from 2012 for his obituary — because Oh “was so much more cheerful there, compared to the pictures from his own birthday”.

Oh started swinging the beads 23 years ago with his wife as a form of exercise at Singapore Botanical Gardens.

Madam Hew Lin Yin, now aged 77, would accompany him to swing while singing. She later stopped exercising with him to help take care of her grandchildren.

Mdm Hew said: “He would do it every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. As his health got worse, he listened to me and started going less. But he would still go every week when he could because he loved it.”

Ms Oh said of her father: “He loved entertaining people and while there was so much media attention on him over the years, he mainly did it for the smile on people's faces.”

Oh would take along around seven of his wooden bead chains so that children and shoppers along Orchard Road could try using them.

“When people tried swinging the beads, he would laugh and smile. He enjoyed watching people doing it with him, too,” Ms Oh said.

Oh also taught his children and grandchildren how to swing the chain of beads.

His 17-year-old grandson Oh Wei Heng, who lives in the United States, said that his grandfather would take him to the void deck of a public housing block to practise swinging the beads whenever he was in Singapore. This started when the grandson was a seven-year-old.

"When we video-called, he would ask me to practise a pose to train my balance," the grandson said.

Ms Oh recalled how, following an accident in November 2020 when her father was driving a car, which resulted in the car being totally damaged and sent to the scrapyard, her father immediately asked for his beads that were in the boot of his car.

“When he woke up in the (hospital), he told me, ‘You must get the beads back, that’s my life… there’s no point saving my life if you don’t save my beads’.

"So, I had to call the police to make multiple arrangements,” she added.

At first, Ms Oh was unwilling to retrieve the beads because doctors had said that he should stop swinging them due to a spine injury, However, her father was insistent.

“I was turned away at the first scrapyard because of the protocols there, so I had to get a tow truck to take the car to another scrapyard so that we could take the beads back home,” she recalled.

ORCHARD ROAD’S 'CULTURAL ICON'

Despite Covid-19 restrictions halting busking, Buskers Association's founder and co-chair Jonathan Goh, 26, recalled how he would continue bumping into Oh along Orchard Road.

Mr Goh was working as a food delivery rider to make up for his lost income since busking was not allowed, but Oh would continue swinging his beads along a quieter Orchard Road as the Covid-19 restrictions kept most people at home away from the shopping district.

“I asked Uncle Oh how he could do so, but he said that there were no restrictions on exercise. He just really loved doing his art and did not want to stop because it was what kept him alive,” Mr Goh said.

Describing Oh as the “happiest man on the street”, Mr Goh added that his “fellow busking colleague” was extremely friendly and loved it when on-lookers showed interest in his beads, allowing them to try their hand at swinging them.

“He’s a cultural icon, in his singlet and swinging his beads along Orchard Road behind the expensive branded stores… he really showed what passion is.”

When asked about what would happen to her father's wooden beads, Ms Oh said she is unsure if they can be cremated with him.

TODAY has reached out to the family to check if they have done so.