Prominent People | Page 27 | Images of Old Hawaiʻi

August 17, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Georgia O’Keeffe

“The pineapple is quite beautiful as it grows. When it is little and you look down into it as I did into the corn when I painted it – it is very handsome – and later when it is big and has not turned ripe it is a wonderful green and purple sort of color – very beautiful among its foliage …” (Georgia O’Keeffe; Saville)

James Drummond Dole founded Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1901. Within a few years pineapple production at Wahiawa had increased that Dole planned a cannery at Iwilei, near the shipping facilities of Honolulu Harbor.

Later (1922,) Dole bought the Island of Lānaʻi and transformed it into the largest pineapple plantation in the world, with 20,000 farmed acres and a planned plantation village to house more than a thousand workers and their families.

The ad agency for Dole was looking for something special for a national magazine advertising campaign; in exchange for an all-expense-paid trip, they asked Georgia O’Keeffe to submit two paintings from Hawai‘i. She was also free to paint for herself.

The second of seven children of Wisconsin dairy farmers, Georgia Totto O’Keeffe (November 15, 1887 – March 6, 1986) knew by age ten that she wanted to become an artist. In 1908, she won a prize for a still-life oil painting. After a short hiatus, she painted in earnest and in 1917 held her first solo show (organized by Alfred Stieglitz, her future husband.)

O’Keeffe became one of the greatest female artists of the 20th century. Best known for her still-life paintings, she painted natural settings at their most basic: large-scale flowers, bones and landscapes.

On January 30, 1939, O’Keeffe and Stieglitz headed to New York’s Grand Central Station to start the trip. Nine days later, she stepped off the Lurline, was draped with ʻilima and crown flower lei and found herself in the Islands. (Stelle)

She spent her first month in Hawai‘i on O‘ahu. After 2-weeks, she finally saw a pineapple field; it was “all sharp and silvery stretching for miles off to the beautiful irregular mountains. … I was astonished – it was so beautiful.” (O’Keeffe; Steele)

On March 10, she moved to Maui and ended up in Hāna. “This seems to be the best yet. The trip over by plane was fine – I will be off in the far away some where – but every one says is the good place. The flying was very good and I am fine – 9 in the morning on a new island seems good – Wish you could see it.” (Postcard, O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 10, 1939; Saville)

She was hosted by the Willis Jennings family (he was manager of the Hāna sugar plantation;) “You would laugh to see where I am now – almost at the end of the road on Maui – a little sugar plantation town – at the managers house – the only white family for 60 miles and it is different as the man in Honolulu told me it would be – The mans wife is not at home but his daughter is”. (Letter, O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 12, 1939; Saville)

Twelve-year-old Patricia Jennings became her companion and guide for the next ten days. “The road to Hāna was there, but not paved all the way. We always took a picnic lunch because you never knew how long it would take.” (Patricia Jennings; Tarleton)

O’Keeffe would drive the family car to favorite island sites with Patricia, then send the girl off to amuse herself while she painted. The one exception was when a sudden ‘Īao Valley shower made them retreat to the car. Patricia watched, without speaking, enthralled by the brush in her hand, the effortless glide of oil paints onto canvas. (Tarleton)

“It is hard to tell about the islands—the people have a kind of gentleness that isn’t usual on the mainland. I feel that my tempo must definitely change to put down anything of what is here—I don’t know whether I can or not—but it is certainly a different world—and I am glad I came.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 12, 1939; Saville)

From Hāna she spent a few days in Wailuku, then, headed to Volcano on the Big Island. “We drove about hundred and 75 miles—part of it through as tropical woods as I have seen—about a third of it along the sea—then up to the top of the volcano where they left me at the (Volcano House) hotel – It was a good day” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 31, 1939; Saville)

“I didn’t care for that place. I don’t like steam coming out of the earth and holes in the road where the earth has opened up and not closed properly – and great bumps about a foot high where the pavement just rose up and didn’t go down.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, March 31, 1939; Saville) She soon left the Volcano area and headed to the Kona Inn.

“I guess we did this area of the island pretty thoroughly – First we watched fishermen bringing in their net of fish in a little bay -what beautiful fish – every color and many queer shapes – very very beautiful color – the men swim and dive about – have quite a time gathering their net in.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, April 3, 1939; Saville)

“All day I was driving over here (Hilo) from Kona Inn and it was a wonderful day – Warm and lovely and blue this morning – the loveliest part the Parker Ranch – quite like (New Mexico) but it is high and the lower part of the island – shore line and sea floating off in space like a map far below with no edge where it went off into the sky – sky became water and water became sky – and all so delicate and lovely – It was as beautiful as anything I’ve ever seen.” (O’Keeffe to Stieglitz, April 9, 1939; Saville)

She returned briefly to O‘ahu and sailed for California on the Matsonia on April 14. More than six months after her arrival in Hawaiʻi, O’Keeffe had produced 20-paintings, not one included a pineapple and she subsequently “submitted depictions of a papaya tree and the spiky blossom of a lobster’s claw heliconia” for the Dole ads.

Some creative ad copy featuring the heliconia noted, “Hospitable Hawaiʻi cannot send you its abundance of flowers or its sunshine. But it sends you something reminiscent of both – golden fragrant Dole Pineapple Juice”;– it ran nationally in Vogue and the Saturday Evening Post. (Yagi)

For the other ad, “(t)actful Art Director Charles Coiner,” as Time Magazine reported in 1940, “spouted to Painter O’Keeffe about the beauty of pineapples in bud, urg(ing) her to give the pineapple a break. He phoned Honolulu, had a budding plant put aboard the Clipper.”

“Thirty-six hours later the plant was delivered to the O’Keeffe studio in Manhattan. ‘It’s beautiful, I never knew that,’ exclaimed Artist O’Keeffe… She promptly painted it, and Dole got a pineapple picture after all.” (Yagi)

A year after her Hawaiʻi trip, in 1940, she bought a house at Ghost Ranch, in New Mexico. After Stieglitz died in 1946, she settled his estate and moved to New Mexico permanently. There in the wilderness and isolation she continued to paint, and she remained in New Mexico until her death at the age of 98. (Steele)

There is an interesting side note to this story; one day, I received an unrelated FB message asking about Willis Jennings (Patricia’s father.) Unrelated to that, earlier that same day, I received word that Patricia Jennings Morriss Caldwell had just passed away at the age of 87. Patricia Jennings is the mother of my HPA classmate, Lex Morriss.

Georgia_O’Keeffe_in_Hawaii,_1939

Georgia_O’Keeffe_in_Hawaii_1939

Patricia Jennings-Hana_companion and escort of Georgia OKeeffe

Waterfall — No. III — Iao Valley, 1939, by Georgia O’Keeffe

OKeeffe-Bella-Donna

O’keeffe_-_’Pineapple_Bud’,_1939

O’keeffe_-_’Papaya Tree, Iao Valley’,_1939

O’keeffe_-_Dole Pineapple Ad,_1939

Okeefe-Hibiscus

Black Lava Bridge, Hana Coast No. 1-1939, by Georgia O’Keeffe

Hana lava bridge-NYTimes

Black Lava Bridge, Hana Coast-1939, by Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia_OKeeffe-Waterfall

Georgia Okeeffe-sign

August 10, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Pōhakuloa CCC Camp

In 1876, the legislature passed “An Act for the Protection and Preservation of Woods and Forests” in response to water crisis in Honolulu due to deforestation and decrease in stream flow Nuʻuanu Stream, the main source of water for Honolulu.

In 1882, the first government tree nursery was established to provide tree seedlings for reforestation of mauka lands above Honolulu. 50,000 tree seedlings are planted on the denuded slopes of Tantalus (Honolulu). (DLNR-DOFAW)

In 1903, the Hawaii Territorial Legislature passed Act 44 establishing the Board of Agriculture and Forestry, predating the USDA Forest Service by one year. Act 44 expanded on the Forestry Act of 1876 and provided the legal vehicle for the creation of reserves encompassing private as well as public lands.

The Forest Reserve System was created by the Territorial Government of Hawai’i through Act 44 on April 25, 1903. It was cooperative arrangement between the Hawai‘i Sugar Planters Association and the territorial government.

Plantations needed wood for fuel, but they also needed to keep the forests intact to draw precipitation from the trade winds, which in turn fed the irrigation systems in the cane fields below. (DLNR-DOFAW)

The first Territorial forester, Ralph S Hosmer, suggested that the forest had been declining in the uplands as a result of fire, grazing and insects. In order to preserve the forest, it was necessary to keep the ungulates out. From 1924 to 1926 hundreds of thousands of pigs, sheep, cattle and goats were reportedly removed from Hawaii’s Territorial forests.

But the planters were also worried about hunters in the woods starting fires from their camps. Likewise, the commercial ranchers were also wary of individual hunters who could also shoot cattle from the ranch. (Peter Mills)

Then the US economy took a hit … after a decade of national prosperity in the Roaring Twenties, Americans faced a national crisis after the Crash of 1929. The Great Depression saw an unemployment rate of more than twenty-five percent in the early 1930s. (pbs)

As a means to make work Franklin Delano Roosevelt authorized the New Deal; the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) succeeded the Emergency Conservation Work agency, which started in 1933. In 1939, the CCC became part of the Federal Security Agency. (It was eliminated in 1943.) (UH Mānoa)

The purpose of the CCC and its predecessors was to provide employment in forestry and conservation work. It “brought together two wasted resources, the young men and the land, in an effort to save both.” (NPS)

From FDR’s inauguration on March 4, 1933, to the induction of the first CCC enrollee, only 37 days had elapsed. The goals of the CCC according to the law were: “1) To provide employment (plus vocational training) and 2) To conserve and develop ‘the natural resources of the United States.’”

By the end of the third year, there were 2,158-CCC camps in the nation and 1,600,000-men had participated in the program. (NPS)

There were five primary CCC camps built in Hawaiʻi (the CCC Compound at Kokeʻe State Park, the most intact today; what is now a YMCA camp at Keʻanae on Maui; a research facility on the Big Island; Hawaiian Homes Property with only two buildings remaining on the Big Island; and part of Schofield Barracks in Wahiawa on Oʻahu.) Other temporary campgrounds were spotted in work areas around the Islands. (NPS)

While the first 57 CCC enrollees on Hawaiʻi Island began working in 1934, it was not until June of 1935 the first CCC camp was established (in Hawai‘i National Park – as Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park was originally called), which housed 200 enrollees.

The territorial foresters’ camp at Keanakolu was expanded into a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) field camp. All of these buildings are still standing today.

Additional camps were also constructed around Mauna Kea Forest Reserve boundaries to house crews of CCC enrollees. In 1935, a CCC camp was at Pōhakuloa. It included a cluster of buildings and tents that included a recreation/ dining hall, two bunkhouses, two cottages, seven cabins, and seven outbuildings.

Pu‘u Pōhakuloa is a cinder cone overlooking the PTA headquarters area on the Saddle Road. Pōhakuloa means long stone. It also refers to a deity of the forest lands that extended across Mauna Loa towards Mauna Kea. Pōhakuloa, the deity, was a form of the akua Kū, a lover of Poliʻahu, a patron of canoe makers, and in his human form an ʻolohe expert and woodworker,

The hill gives its name to the respective Pōhakuloa references in this area. One early name was associated with a Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) camp in this area.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) undertook fencing, road building and visitor facilities on Mauna Kea. The CCC built a stone cabin at Hale Pōhaku, which gained its name (house of stone) from that structure. The cabin at Hale Pōhaku provided a shelter for overnight hikers, hunters and snow players.

In 1935-36, as part of the effort to eradicate wild sheep from the mountain, the CCC took on the project of building a fence around the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve (over 60 miles of fencing). Sheep drives were then carried out in an attempt to eliminate the sheep from the reserve.

The CCC brought water down to Pōhakuloa from a mountain spring … “The CCC days … Up the gulch, up on the mountain, remember, they tapped one of the springs up there …”

“Yes, they had one of the pipes going up. You can see the pipe when you go, it’s coming down.” (Jess Hannah; Maly) “[T]hat water for Pōhakuloa, there’s a spring, Hopukani Spring. CCC boys built the pipeline.” (Davd Woodside; Maly) The spring provided a “continuous supply of pure water.” (Bryan; ASM) (Spring water is no longer used; water is trucked in from Hilo or Waimea.)

The advent of World War II brought an end to the CCC program, as the remaining manpower and funding for the program were redirected toward the war effort.

By July 1, 1942, all Territory of Hawaiʻi CCC camps were closed, transferred to the military, or abandoned. The Army operated Camp Pōhakuloa between 1943 and 1945. The army also took over the old CCC camp house at Pōhakuloa and used it during the war.

After the end of the CCC programs and World War II, the old CCC facilities at Pōhakuloa were primarily used by staff of the Territorial Divisions of Forestry, Fish and Game including lodging by sheep and bird hunters or by other members of the public seeking recreational accommodations.

“Sheep hunters usually gather at Pohakuloa, the lodge maintained by the Hawaiian Board of Forestry and Agriculture. Here they spend the night under piles of blankets (because of the 6,500 foot elevation, the nights are almost always cold) and start out before sunrise for the mountain ridges.”

“They climb to the ten thousand foot elevation, where wild sheep and goats are in abundance. The Board of Forestry encourages hunting, as the animals have caused serious erosion by eating vegetation, and some authorities believe that the sheep and goats will never be entirely exterminated.”

“In its desire to provide hunting facilities, the Territory maintains not only Pohakuloa lodge, with its bedding accommodations for fifty people, but smaller lodges at Kemole and Kahinahina.” (Paradise of the Pacific, May 1948; Maly)

In 1954, the Division of Territorial Parks was created, and the former CCC facilities became part of Pōhakuloa Park, also called “Pohakuloa Hunting Lodge”.

The division began a series of improvements that would eventually replace the existing CCC cabins with all new buildings. (No physical evidence of the original CCC structures remain, as they were removed by 1968.)

In August 1962, DLNR’s Division of State Parks officially assumed all responsibility for administering these facilities and booking overnight accommodations. Forestry, Fish and Game staff continued to use a number of older structures.

The transformation of the Pōhakuloa CCC camp into the Pōhakuloa Park and later Mauna Kea State Recreation Area happened between 1961 and 1970.

The first of these improvements was a picnic area south of the Saddle Road from the CCC cabins. In 1961, major improvements to the Park began with the addition of new cabins. The first three cabins, variously called the “Housekeeping,” “Family,” or “Vacation” cabins, were built northeast of the former CCC complex, followed by two more the following year.

These five identical cabins, built on post-and-pier foundations, were prefabricated cedar structures manufactured by Loxide Structures of Tacoma, Washington. The cabins were roofed with cedar shakes and were replaced with corrugated metal in 1989.

Each of these cabins was named after a native Hawaiian plant as illustrated by a wooden plaque near its door with the plant name. In 1963, the existing comfort station was built, using a combination of fir, pine, and hollow tile.

A new headquarters building, caretaker’s cabin, and a storage building were constructed. Each of these were pre-fabricated by Pan-Abode Company in Washington State. The buildings are tongue-in-groove cedar log cabins built on post-and-pier foundations and roofed with cedar shakes.

The two “Family” cabins (now the ADA accessible cabins) were also built near the cluster of vacation cabins on the other side of the recreation area. These cabins, like the other new buildings, were prefabricated tongue-ingroove cedar kit cabins supplied by the Pan-Abode Company.

With the construction of the Comfort Station, the park’s picnic area was relocated from south of Saddle Road to its present location.

At its meeting on March 28, 2014, BLNR approved the management transfer of the State Park to the Department of Parks and Recreation, County of Hawai‘i; and approved the withdrawal of the park area from the Mauna Kea Forest Reserve and set aside to the County for park purposes.

The park was renamed Gilbert Kahele Recreation Area in 2019. The late Hawai‘i Island State Senator, Gilbert Kahele, “worked just down the road from the recreation area for 34 years as Director of the Public Works Division at the Pōhakuloa Training Area.”

“When he served in the state legislature he was instrumental in achieving park improvements by way of the transfer of the management to Hawai‘i County.” (Kahele; DLNR Release) Lots here is from Cultural Surveys, ASM and Rosendahl.)

August 9, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Arcadia

“As one enters the grounds the pure style of the white structure is more impressive. Simplicity, which always spells tase, reigns supreme, and the grassy terrace on one side of the broad walk advancing to meet one, is a quiet spot of beauty …”

“… as well as a sign of the hospitality which will always endear the Governor and his wife to the public and their intimate friends.” (Evening Bulletin, Jan 18, 1908)

In 1907, a new home was built “where their old cottage stood for so many years”. (Evening Bulletin, Jan 18, 1908) “Arcadia” was “known as a center of culture and refinement”. (Hawaiian Gazette, June 20, 1899)

Born October 29, 1863, in Grass Valley, California, Walter Francis Frear was the son of Walter and Fannie E (Foster) Frear. He descended on his father’s side from Hughes Frere, a French Huguenot who emigrated to New York from Flanders in 1676 and was one of the twelve founders of New Paltz, New York. On his mother’s side, he is a descendant of George Soule, who came to America with the Mayflower Pilgrims.

Arriving in the Islands with his parents at the age of seven, Mr. Frear first saw Hawaii on Christmas morning, 1870. He graduated from O‘ahu College in 1881 and received his AB degree at Yale University in 1885.

After serving as an instructor at O‘ahu College, Mr. Frear entered Yale Law School, receiving an LL.B. degree in 1890 and was awarded the Jewell prize for the best examination at graduation. In 1910 the honorary degree of LL.D. was conferred on him by Yale University.

Returning to Hawaii, he was appointed second judge, First Circuit Court, by Queen Liliu‘okalani on January 1, 1893, just before the revolution which ended the monarchy, and was appointed second associate justice of the Supreme Court by the Provisional Government, March 7, 1893.

Frear married Mary Emma Dillingham Frear on August 1, 1893. Mary was a daughter of Benjamin F Dillingham, one of the most prominent businessmen and entrepreneurs in Hawaiʻi, and Emma Louise Smith, daughter of missionaries Rev and Mrs Lowell Smith, who had come to Hawaiʻi from New England in 1833.

During the Republic of Hawai‘i, Mr. Frear was made first associate justice of the Supreme Court, January 6, 1896. In 1898, following annexation by the US, he was appointed by President McKinley a member of the commission to recommend to Congress legislation concerning Hawaii.

Frear was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court, Territory of Hawai‘i, June 14, 1900, serving until August 15, 1907. He was appointed Hawai‘i’s third Governor in 1907 by President Roosevelt; Frear remained in office until 1913.

The Frear home, known as “Arcadia,” was located at 1434 Punahou Street. (Punahou74) “There is a feeling of space and comfort all over the house. Nothing is over-done. … The bedrooms are all dainty and possess the same restful atmosphere.” (Evening Bulletin, Jan 18, 1908)

“Always interested in the Greek language, the Frears chose a name in it for their home. Horses, cats and other pets also were often given Greek names. Arcadia has been variously translated as peace, rest an beauty, of ‘the home of pastoral simplicity and happiness.’ The Frears had originally met when he was her Greek teacher.” (Star Bulletin, April 10, 1965)

“It is certainly a house of culture, of rest, and of peace. That atmosphere pervades everything, and on feels on intimate terms with the host and hostess from the moment of entering it portals.”

“It is also a home, a place to live in, and the sympathetic natures of the occupants are felt immediately. That Governor and Mrs Frear will be one with the public and its needs goes without saying, for they believe heart and soul in ding all in their power for the general good of mankind.”

Walter died January 22, 1948 in Honolulu. Mary died on January 17, 1951. “Arcadia. The stately home … at 1434 Punahou St, together with all the land [about 3-acres] and improvements [was] bequeathed to Punahou School under the terms of Mrs’ Frear’s will … [and she] requests her residence be known as the ‘Walter and Mary Frear Hall.’”. (Honolulu Advertiser, Feb 2, 1951)

Punahou considered such options as faculty housing but, by the fall of 1955, the facility had been remodeled to accommodate the kindergarten. Classes were held there until May 1962. (Punahou74)

Then, “The present home will be torn down to make way for the new Arcadia … The project will be built and owned by the Central Union Church.” (Honolulu Advertiser, April 15, 1965)

“Punahou had announced plans for the retirement home there last October but for tax reasons decided to lease it to the [Central Union] church instead.” (Star Bulleting, Feb 25, 1965)

“Ground was broken … for the $7.4 million Arcadia ‘retirement’ apartment building to be located on the site of the old Frear home at 1434 Punahou Street.”

“Instead of the customary shovel-full of dirt, the ground-breaking ceremony featured a hitching-post ‘transplanting’. A metal hitching post at the side of the home, which dates back to 1907, was moved to a special container, which will be given a permanent niche when the Arcadia project is completed.” (Honolulu Advertiser, April 15, 1965)

August 7, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

“Nothing can touch it”

“‘When we first went to Napili,’ said Mrs Kep Aluli, ‘it was an isolated beach with one cottage on it. We loved it.’” Star Bulletin, Jan 14, 1970.

In 1956, Kep Aluli and Yoshio Ogami were successful bidders for two of the thirteen “choice Napili beach lots” [they bought lots 7 & 8] “at “Napili beach in the Kaanapali section of Lahaina”. These were through an auction of Territory of Hawai‘i properties. (Advertiser, July 2, 1956)

Shortly thereafter, it was reported that “Kep Aluli, Honolulu builder, is planning a hotel at Napili Beach”. The land acquired from the Territory plus an acquisition of adjoining property “gives the developers a two-acre, beach-frontage hotel site and another acre a hundred feet away for tennis courts and beach facilities.”

“Describing the location, Aluli said, ‘Nothing can touch it.’” (Star Bulletin, Sept 11, 1956)

Aluli and Ogami built the Mauian Hotel on this property and shortly thereafter the Napali Kai and Hale Napli (and later others) sprang up.

“An entirely new resort complex has developed around Napili Bay, pioneered by Honolulu’s Kep Aluli and Canadian investors.” Honolulu Advertiser, Feb 15, 1966)

“Beyond Kaanapali, in that heart of Lahaina around Napili Bay, the new era already seems to have arrived.” “If the muscle and brain of the new Lahaina are at Kaanapali, its heart is more easily found at Napili”. (Honolulu Advertiser, July 17, 1964)

Kep Aluli was my parents’ classmate at Punahou. Others in the extended Aluli family were classmates with me and my siblings. When we were kids, we used to visit different neighbor islands during the summer; the visits to the Alulis at Napili were a special treat.

(During an extended Punahou alumni celebration, some of our classmates went to Maui and stayed at the Mauian at Napili – I wonder if the arrangers and others knew of the generations of connection the place has back to Punahou (with Kep’s nephew being one of our classmates.))

Napili, meaning the joinings or the pili grass, is on the West end of Maui. This area is referred to as Hono a Pi‘ilani (the Bays of Piʻilani (aka Honoapiʻilani,); from South to North, six of the identified bays are Honokōwai (bay drawing fresh water), Honokeana (cave bay), Honokahua (sites bay,) Honolua (two bays), Honokōhau (bay drawing dew) and Hononana (animated bay).

Sweet potatoes were reportedly grown between Honokōhau and Kahakuloa, presumably on lower kula lands; Kahana Ahupua’a was known as a place of salt gathering for the people of Lahaina.

Coastal marine foraging and fishing were combined with more upland agricultural pursuits. People would have moved between the coast and the upland agricultural fields, using the full range of resources available within their ahupua‘a. Semi-permanent and permanent habitation probably occurred in both coastal and upland settings.

Whaling (centered at Lahaina Town) was the first commercial enterprise in West Maui, but it had more or less collapsed by the 1860s. Commercial sugar cane production was the next large business venture in West Maui, starting as early as 1863, and it was focused between Ka‘anapali and Lahaina.

In the later 19th century, lands in West Maui became part of the Campbell Estate. This was also the time that the Honolua Ranch was first established. Cattle ranching began then and was continued by Henry Perrine Baldwin, who acquired the lands from the Campbell Estate in 1890.

In addition to ranching, other early commercial activities included coffee farming. David T. Fleming became manager of Honolua Ranch. Fleming was well-versed in pineapple production from the Hai‘ku area and gradually began shifting the ranch’s initiative to pineapple production.

The Honolua Ranch/Baldwin Packers complex shifted from Honolua to Honokahua in 1915, and a pineapple cannery was constructed. A major commercial pineapple industry emerged in West Maui during the 1920s.

The plantation communities of Honokahua and Napili emerged and developed as the Honolua Ranch/Baldwin Packers pineapple operations grew. The population of the Lahaina area increased with the successful economic operations of the pineapple plantation.

Baldwin Packers merged with Maui Pineapple Company in 1962 to form Maui Land and Pineapple Company, Inc. After this time, much of the Honolua Ranch lands were converted for resort development. Kep Aluli expanded that into Napili. (Lots of information here is from Scientific Consultant Services.)

August 5, 2024 by Peter T Young Leave a Comment

Norma Jeane

Norma Jeane Mortenson (the name on her birth certificate) was born June 1, 1926 to Gladys Pearl Monroe (her mother Gladys was married three times – to Jasper Baker, Martin Edward Mortenson and John Stewart Eley).

Norma Jeane’s birth certificate named Edward Mortenson as her father, but Charles Stanley Gifford, a co-worker of Gladys’ with whom she had an affair around the time of Norma Jeane’s conception, was determined to be her biological father. (Time & Newsweek)

She later baptized Norma Jeane Baker and lived in a foster home of Ida and Albert Bolender. Her mother was frequently confined in an asylum, and Norma Jeane was reared by 12 successive sets of foster parents and, for a time, in an orphanage. (Britannica)

On June 19, 1942 – after dating only a few months and just 18 days after Norma Jean’s 16th birthday – she married 21-year-old James Dougherty.

In 1944, Dougherty joined the merchant marine and was initially assigned to teach sea safety on Catalina Island, where the young couple moved into an apartment. “She was just a housewife,” Dougherty told UPI. “We would go down to the beach on weekends, and have luaus on Saturday night.” (LA Times)

“Dougherty eventually shipped out, and Norma Jeane moved in with his parents in North Hollywood. … In 1944, while working at Radioplane, Ethel Dougherty and her daughter-in-law joined the ranks of the millions of women known as ‘Rosie the Riveters’ helping the war effort.”

“During her 60-hour workweek at the nation’s minimum wage of $20 a week, Norma Jeane’s assignments included spraying glue on aircraft fabric and inspecting and folding parachutes.” (Airport Journals)

“American women played important roles during World War II, both at home and in uniform. Around 5 million civilian women served in the defense industry and elsewhere in the commercial sector during World War II with the aim of freeing a man to fight.” (US Dept of Defense)

Women had to step up to work in the factories that produced what the men needed, and the Rosie the Riveter character was created to recruit them. The men were celebrated when they arrived home, but women lost their jobs and their role was forgotten. (Daily Mail)

“In the summer of 1945 Private David Conover, a professional photographer working for the U.S. Army Air Corps First Motion Picture Unit, was sent to the Radioplane Munitions Factory in Burbank, California to shoot morale-boosting photographs of employees doing their part to help the war effort.”

“As Conover later wrote, ‘I moved down the assembly line, taking shots of the most attractive employees. None was especially out of the ordinary.’”

“‘I came to a pretty girl putting on propellers and raised the camera to my eye. She had curly ash blond hair and her face was smudged with dirt. I snapped her picture and walked on.’”

“‘Then I stopped, stunned. She was beautiful. Half child, half woman, her eyes held something that touched and intrigued me. I retraced my steps and introduced myself. ‘And you?’ ‘I’m Norma Jeane Dougherty.’ She smiled and offered her hand.’”

“The 19-year-old Norma Jeane’s appearance and natural ease in front of the camera capitivated Conover, and upon hearing that she wanted to become an actress, he told her that she would need to become a model first.”

“To give Norma Jeane a portfolio, Conover sought and was granted leave. He spent the next two weeks with Norma Jeane in the hills of Southern California teaching her how to pose, model and ‘address’ a camera.”

“Most of the film was mailed to a processing lab. But Conover retained a few rolls of exposed film. Good thing: The mailed film never arrived and has never been found.” (South Florida Sun Sentinel)

“Conover noted that 19-year-old Norma Jeane’s response to the camera was amazing. She seemed to ‘come alive’ with an immediate and natural instinct.”

“In fact, he was so excited by his discovery that he could barely hold the camera steady. He must have hidden his excitement from his subject, because the teenager timidly asked if she was photogenic.”

“After several photo sessions and with Conover’s influence, Norma Jeane applied at the Blue Book Modeling Agency. There she was groomed in the art of modeling and encouraged to lighten her hair.”

“She soon had the attention of every producer in Hollywood. In July 1946, Norma Jeane signed a contract with Twentieth Century Fox Studios”. (Airport Journals)

On February 23, 1956, Norma Jeane Mortenson changed her legal name to Marilyn Monroe (although she’d been known publicly by the moniker since 1946). (The Atlantic)

“Shortly after their wedding and en route to Japan for their honeymoon, Marilyn Monroe and Joe DiMaggio made a stop in Honolulu, where they were greeted by hysterical fans—some of whom even reached out to touch or pull Monroe’s hair. As protection, the newlyweds were given a police escort to Waikiki’s Royal Hawaiian”. (Robb Report)

“Marilyn Monroe, one of the most famous stars in Hollywood’s history, was found dead early today [August 5, 1962] in the bedroom of her home in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles. She was 36 years old. Beside the bed was an empty bottle that had contained sleeping pills. Fourteen other bottles of medicines and tablets were on the night stand.” (NY Times)