COLUMN:

Island Treasure

Story by Lynn Cook
Photos by Nick Epperson

Aunty Genoa Keawe was one of 11 children. She was born in 1918 in Kaka’ako and raised in La’ie. She confirms that she only finished eighth grade, saying, “my mom couldn’t afford to send me to high school.” Her formal education may have ended early but, without a doubt, this is a woman with a Ph.D. in success.

She created and still runs Genoa Keawe Records. Recently the University of Hawaii Board of Regents presented her with an Honorary Doctorate. She has been inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame and named a National Heritage Fellow. She’s a Living Legend according to the Honpa Hongwanji of Honolulu. The walls of her Papakolea home are crowded with citations; shelves are filled with Na Hoku Hanohano and other music awards and commendations. Ask her about all this and she smiles and says, “well, I just like to sing.”

Aunty Genoa entertains every Thursday poolside at the Waikiki Marriott Resort and Spa.

 Aunty says that her “professional” singing career really began in 1944. “I took a dare from some girlfriends to call Uncle Johnny K. Almeida’s radio show. I told him I could sing.” When she was invited to the show, she asked to sing “For You a Lei” for her niece. She was an instant on-air hit. Sixty-plus years later that same niece, Momi Kahawaiola’a, plays guitar at the weekly packed house that is Aunty Genoa’s show poolside at the Waikiki Marriott Resort and Spa.

Aunty has been singing there for the past 20 years, with no thoughts about the “R” word, “retirement,” she whispers.

 Her eyes twinkle when she talks of falling in love. She says she noticed a boy, “he was good looking you know. A nice looking boy.” She was on the way home from a concert with the Mormon choir and the bus stopped at Kahana Bay. The choir had been singing for the church president. After the concert she says her cousin whispered that the nice looking boy wanted her to stay behind. She did, and, at age 16 married Edward Puniwai Aiko. They had 11 children, most of whom are now gone.

Youngest son Eric Keawe helps coordinate his mother’s many singing engagements around Oahu.

Talking of her late husband, she looks away and says, “I loved him so much, when he passed there could never be another.”

 With their large family, times were tough. Moving to Papakolea on the slopes of Punchbowl crater, a new neighbor offered to teach her how to string flower and to sell them from bar to bar. Aunty says the sailors loved to buy lei for their “new” girlfriends, the ones they just met that night. She worked at the YMCA, dancing hula for three dollars. “That was good money then, you know,” she says with a grin.

Through the war years, she drove the yellow taxi, taking servicemen all over the island. “If one didn’t want to pay me I just drove until I saw an MP. I would stop, honk and they would suddenly ‘find’ the money in their pocket.” Some drivers, she says with a big stage wink, would buy alcohol for a few bucks and sell it back to the sailors for $40.

 Eric Keawe, the youngest of her children, talks about the times when things were tough. “Sometimes our dad didn’t make it home with the paycheck. Mom eventually took control of the family finances.” He says when his mom would make a weekly trip to pick up her husband’s paycheck the word was, “here comes the boss,” or “hey, the governor is here.” It was the “heads up” that Genoa was in the pay line. Her then 7-year-old son, now renowned baritone Gary Aiko Keawe, sold newspapers and shined shoes, bringing the money home to mom.

Son Gary Aiko, who also performs with the Royal Hawaiian Band, is part of the show when his mother sings at the Marriott.

 From childhood, Aunty Genoa had a voice. Everyone in her family sang but she was the one who had the ability to capture an audience. Sometimes she was called to sing with the bands who were hired to perform at the old Civic Auditorium. “There would be a band in each corner. We took turns, bouncing songs back and forth. Nothing has ever been like that again.”

The Civic, located in Moiliili, was eventually leveled by the wrecking ball. In its time it was the biggest dance hall west of California, packed first with big bands, island girls, young servicemen and wrestling matches. Later it was the home of rock bands. 

 By 1946 Aunty was recording with George Ching’s 49th State Records. She laughs because “George really thought we would be the 49th state. When Alaska got the bid, he had to do a quick change, and name it 50th State Records.”

She entertained at clubs all over Honolulu, organizing most of the gigs herself. Only faded photographic memories now, Club Polynesia, Aloha Grill, Knights Inn, Hawaiian Village, Sierra Café, and the Biltmore Hotel were the hot spots. Her appearances on the Hawaii Calls radio show kept her booked every night. In 1953 she recorded “Party Hulas,” with Don McDermott Jr.’s Hula Records, still the number one recording for hula dancers around the world. 

By the early ‘60s, she’d become a partner in Club Polynesia. Her first trip to Japan, to open the Joban Center, brought instant popularity with the Japanese. Today thousands of Japanese women learn and dance hula to Aunty Genoa’s “Luau Hulas.” Forty years after that first Japan trip, an event planner came to Honolulu to invite her to the anniversary of the Joban Center. The young woman was too young to be aware that Aunty was the center’s opening act. A three-month, one-show-a day, trip to Japan resulted for Aunty Genoa, accompanied by a band, fire knife dancer, solo male singer and hula dancers.

Niece Momi Kahawaiola’a plays guitar and sings during the Thursday Marriott shows and Alan Akaka, who teaches music at Kamehameha Schools, plays steel guitar.

 “In the ‘60s I wasn’t happy with the “deals” the record producers were giving musicians, so I just decided to launch Genoa Keawe Records, Inc. I was producer, distributor, bookkeeper and head of public relations.”

Her Papakolea house is on a steep hillside. “The whole family will tell you how hard it was to carry boxes of albums up and down the steep concrete stairs to our house. It was 33 1/3 then you know.” Genoa was the only female singer producing her own music. There is no doubt that she has inspired some of the Na Hoku award-winning Hawaiian women today to “do it on their own.”

To promote GK Records, she did KCCN radio interviews with Crash Kealoha, sang in the stores and answered the phone. “Not many entertainers have the good luck to have record stores calling to say they are sold out and can I please, please bring more.” Good thing, she says, that she learned to drive back in her taxi days.

A fan talks with Aunty Genoa before her Marriott show. People bring her flowers and ask for her autograph.

In the ‘70s Genoa ran the Hawaiian School of Music, Language and Hula in Pauoa Valley. Her students are still loyal fans. Through the ‘80s and ‘90s she performed with all of the Islands’ top musical acts and recorded many of them on her label, including: Kealoha Kalama, Joe Keawe, Andy Cummings, Maddy Lam, Pua Rogers and Myra English. Aunty Genoa has toured from Russia to Tahiti.

 Son Eric says that the Japanese hula dancers consider it a pilgrimage to travel to Waikiki and sit at his mom’s Thursday night show. “They wait all evening. They just hope that she invites them up to dance. Of course, being polite Japanese girls, they never ask,” he adds. Local hula halau, come by on a regular basis.

On any Thursday evening there is at least one aspiring singer or ukulele player who is invited up on stage, plays and leaves feeling like they have had an audience with the goddess of Hawaiian music. “The greats all come,” says Eric. “Stars from every country and every kind of music. They come to hear mom hold that one note.” Aunty Genoa is renowned for her ability to sing Alika, sustaining a note for longer than anyone else in Hawaii.

 Son Gary Aiko, singing vocals and playing base, and niece Momi, are regular musicians on the show. Eric Keawe sits in. Steel guitar master Alan Akaka, son of U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, rounds out the sound that showcases the 89-year old songbird. Aunty has 40 grandchildren, 50 great-grandchildren and 20+ great-great grandchildren.

Her hair is silver gray, sometimes there is a cane beside her chair, but when she holds that perfect note in her signature falsetto rendition of Alika the eyes of the poolside lounge patrons fill with tears. Her voice is pure Hawaii. In essence, Aunty Genoa was and is a trailblazer who is far, far more than a one-note wonder.

Lynn Cook is a Hawaii-based freelance writer, specializing in arts and culture. She is the editor of Island Air’s Holoholo magazine and writes for local, national and international publications.

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