Historic figures, celebrated entertainers, lawmakers and heroes can be found in Oahu’s quiet cemeteries. The list that follows is a sample of what can easily be found while strolling through the grave markers. They offer a tangible link to the past.

HISTORICAL FIGURES

Chang Apana

By 1924, Chang Apana was a well-known Honolulu police detective when American novelist Earl Derr Biggers read about his colorful exploits on the streets on Honolulu. Apana, who was born in 1871, inspired the writer to create the famous detective Charlie Chan, who solved crimes using equal parts Sherlock Holmes deductive reasoning and Confucius philosophy. “The House Without a Key” was the first of six popular Charlie Chan novels. Many Charlie Chan feature films followed.

In real life, Chang Apana, who was born under the name Ah Pung, was an unassuming son of Chinese immigrants who grew up poor in Waipio. He had little formal education but worked his way up the police department ranks to become a tough, respected detective who intimidated criminals with a bull whip. Apana died in 1933 and is buried in Manoa Chinese Cemetery.

Kenneth Brown

Kenneth “Kenny” Brown was a true Renaissance man and native son of Hawaii. Born in 1919 in Honolulu, he was an architect, a prominent business and political leader, and a lifelong advocate of preserving and perpetuating his Hawaiian heritage. He served on many institutional boards, including Kapiolani Maternity Hospital, Queen’s Medical Center, East-West Center and Bishop Museum. For his business achievements and community work Brown received many awards,including Humanitarian of the Year Award from the American Red Cross, Living Treasure from Honpa Hongwanji, and the Medal of Honor from the Hawaii State Council, American Institute of Architects.

Brown was the nephew of legendary amateur golfer Francis Ii Brown, and great-grandson of John Papa Ii, a member of the court of King Kamehameha III. He died in 2014 and is buried in Oahu Cemetery.

John A. Burns

As governor of Hawaii from 1962-1974, John A. Burns was the architect of sweeping political and social reform that changed the state. He is considered to be one of the most influential governors in Hawaii’s history, leading the post-World War II effort that brought the Democratic Party to power.

Born in Fort Assiniboine, Mont., in 1909, Burns moved to Hawaii with his family in 1913 and grew up in Kalihi. A champion of the people, Burns supported the right of Japanese Americans to serve in U.S. military forces during World War II, played a key role in bringing statehood to Hawaii, helped expand the University of Hawaii system and guided the growing tourist economy. Most of the state’s major highways were constructed during his time in office, and Burns also spent millions of dollars on the Honolulu International Airport. The state’s public school system under Burns enjoyed its greatest period of expansion ever.

He died in 1975 and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Joseph Campbell

As an American mythologist, writer and lecturer, Joseph Campbell, who was born in 1904 in White Plains, N.Y., is best known for his work in comparative mythology and comparative religion. He’salso known for inspiring many aspects of filmmaker George Lucas’ “Star Wars” franchise. That he is buried in Hawaii might surprise some but Campbell married Jean Erdman, a descendant of the prominent local Smith missionary clan, and the railroad/sugar Dillingham clan. The two met at Sarah Lawrence College while she was a modern dance student and he was a mythology professor. When Campbell retired from Sarah Lawrence after 38 years, the couple moved to Hawaii. He died in 1987 and is buried in Oahu Cemetery.

Alexander Cartwright Jr.

As the so-called “Father of American Baseball,” Alexander Cartwright Jr. was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1938. Born in New York, N.Y. in 1820, Cartwright arrived in Hawaii in 1849, and over the next 43 years distinguished himself as one of the most influential businessmen in the islands.

Cartwright also laid out Hawaii’s first baseball diamond in Makiki — Cartwright Field.

He was also active as a community leader and helped to found Queen’s Hospital, the American Seaman’s Institute and the Honolulu Library and Reading Room. In addition, he served as the fire chief of Honolulu for 13 years. He died in 1892 and is buried in Oahu Cemetery.

St. Joseph Damien

St. Joseph Damien, who was born Joseph de Veuster in 1840, arrived in the islands in 1864 from Tremeloo, Belgium and was ordained a Catholic priest in Honolulu. For 16 years Damien administered to the medical, social and religious needs of the residents at Hansen’s disease settlements at Kalaupapa Peninsula, Molokai. He died there in 1889 from the effects of the disease and was buried in St. Philomena Church Cemetery. In 1936, his body was removed from there and entombed in a crypt in St. Anthony’s Chapel in Leuven, Belgium. In 2009, Damien was canonized a saint in the Catholic Church. In 2009, part of Damien’s right hand was reburied as a relic in his original burial plot in St. Philomena Church Cemetery.

Benjamin Dillingham

One of the most successful industrialists in Hawaii was Benjamin Dillingham, who was born in 1844 in Brewster, Mass. He is most well-known for founding Oahu Railway & Land Company and Dillingham & Co. He was also instrumental in developing Pearl City.

After he died in 1918, Dillingham’s wife Emma commissioned a beautiful marble monument depicting the creation of the railway. It remains one of the most outstanding examples of art deco style sculpture in Hawaii today. He is buried in Oahu Cemetery.

Stanley and Madelyn Dunham

Stanley and Madelyn Dunham were the maternal grandparents of President Barrack Obama and served as important role models while Obama’s mother, Ann Soetoro, was living overseas with her second husband. The Dunhams raised Obama in their Makiki apartment from the age of 10 until he graduated from Punahou School in 1979. Stanley Dunham, a World War II veteran who was born in 1918, brought his wife to Hawaii in 1960. Stanley Dunham worked in the furniture store business while Madelyn, who was born in 1922, worked at Bank of Hawaii, rising in position from secretary to become one of the state’s first female bank vice presidents. Stanley Dunham died in 1992 and his wife died in 2008. Both are buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Brother Joseph Dutton

Brother Joseph Dutton, who was born Ira Barnes Dutton in 1843, arrived at Kalaupapa Peninsula, Molokai in 1886, and after the death of Father Damien in 1889 became a tireless servant to the residents. He was a member of the Secular Franciscan Order. Dutton is most well-known for founding the Baldwin Home for men and boys, with financial assistance from Henry Perrine Baldwin. Dutton served at Kalaupapa for 44 years. He never contracted Hansen’s Disease, and when he died there in 1931 at the age of 88 he was buried in St. Philomena Church Cemetery near the grave of his mentor.

Hiram Fong

Born in 1906, Hiram L. Fong was the first person of Chinese ancestry, and the first Asian American, elected to the U.S. Senate, a position he held continuously from 1959 to 1977. In 1964, he was the first Asian American to seek the Republican Party nomination for president.

In addition to practicing law in Honolulu in his early life, Fong was also one of the founding members of Finance Factors, which focused the banking interest within the immigrant populations of Hawaii. After retiring from politics, he established Senator Fong’s Plantation and Garden, a 250-acre botanical garden and special events venue which remains a popular today. He died in 2004 and is buried in Nuuanu Memorial Park.

Gustav Hannemann III

As a leader in the Mormon Church in Laie, Gustav Hannemann III, who was born in 1911, helped many new Samoan immigrants by taking them into his home while they got established in the islands.

His aunt was Queen Makalita of Manua, the last queen of any of the Samoan islands. His sons distinguished themselves in the community: Muliufi “Mufi” Hannemann as the mayor of Honolulu, Nephi Hannemann as a well-known Waikiki entertainer, and Afinutasi “Gus” Hannemann as director of the American Samoa government office in Hawaii. He died in 2001 and is buried in Laie Cemetery.

Daniel K. Inouye

Daniel K. Inouye, a true son of Hawaii, created an unparalleled legacy as a nine-term U.S. Senator. First elected in 1962, he held the influential position until his death in 2012 at the age of 88. At the time he was the longest-serving member of the senate. He was a key figure in the senate investigations into the Watergate and Iran-Contra scandals.

Inouye, who was born in 1924, became a war hero during World War II when he served as an officer with the 442nd Regimental Combat Team in Europe. This unit was mostly made up of second-generation Japanese Americans from Hawaii who had been denied entry into the U.S. Army after the war broke out because it was believed that they were not loyal to the U.S. When the ban on Japanese enlistments ended Inouye dropped out of his pre-med studies at the University of Hawaii and enlisted in the army.

On April 21, 1945, Inouye lost his right arm while leading an assault against the Germans in San Terenzo, Italy. Despite his wounds, he continued to lead his men against overwhelming enemy forces. For his bravery, Inouye was initially awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, which was upgraded in 2000 to the Medal of Honor.

Over his long and distinguished political career, Inouye received many, many honors and awards for his work. In 2013, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barrack Obama.

Inouye is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Joseph Kahahawai

In one of the most famous race trials in Hawaii history, Joseph Kahahawai was kidnapped and murdered in January 1932 by U.S. Navy Lt. Thomas Massie and his socialite mother-in-law Grace Fortescue. Massie and Fortescue kidnapped the 22-year-old Kahahawai after a hung jury was unable to determine whether or not he and four other men kidnapped and raped Massie’s wife Thalia. Both the Thalia Massie case and the Kahahawai case resulted in intense national publicity and controversy. Kahahawai is buried in Puea Cemetery.

Fred Makino

Born in 1877, Fred Makino was a Japanese-Caucasian immigrant who arrived in Hawaii at the age of 21 from Yokahama, Japan. Makino went on to become a well-known bi-lingual advocate for poor Japanese plantation workers. He did this by becoming a journalist at several local Japanese newspapers, then by opening his own newspaper, The Hawaii Hochi. His paper became a driving force in the movement to improve labor relations within sugar plantations, which had become hotbeds for labor and social unrest. Makino died in 1953 and is buried in Nuuanu Memorial Park.

Spark M. Matsunaga

For 28 years, Spark M. Matsunaga was a liberal Democrat who served Hawaii in both the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. He is best known for his leadership during the 1988 senate passage of a $1.25 billion bill to give $20,000 and an apology to all Japanese-Americans interned during World War II.

Matsunaga, who was born in Kukuiula, Kauai in 1916, knew the discrimination first hand: He was arrested and detained in a Wisconsin camp after World War II started. He and other internees, after petitioning President Franklin D. Roosevelt, were allowed to form the 100th Infantry Battalion, which became one of the most highly decorated units in history.

Matsunaga also lobbied for 22 years before persuading Congress in 1964 to establish a peace academy program, which awards graduate degrees for helping to settle disputes within and among nations. He received much recognition for his humanitarian efforts.

Mastsunaga died in 1990 and is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Patsy Mink

Patsy Mink, the first Asian American woman elected to the U.S. Congress, served as Hawaii’s representative in the U.S. House of Representatives over the course of 24 years.

Mink, who was born in Paia, Maui in 1927, was a tireless advocate of gender equality and was a primary force behind the landmark Title IX legislation that opened up school athletics and academics to women in 1972. After Mink’s death in 2002, this act was renamed the “Patsy Takemoto Mink Equal Opportunity in Education Act.”

During her time in politics, Mink also championed civil rights, unions and education. She was skeptical of the U.S. government’s response to the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and raised concerns about the potential loss of civil liberties in the wake of the creation of the Department of Homeland Security.

She is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Ellison Onizuka

The first Asian-American in space, Ellison S. Onizuka, was born and raised on the Big Island.

Onizuka, who was born in Kealakeua, HI in 1946, served eight years in the U.S. Air Force before joining the NASA Astronaut Corps in 1979 after a one-year astronaut candidate training program. His first mission to space was aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery in 1985 and he orbited Earth for 74 hours.

A year later, he was aboard the ill-fated Space Shuttle Challenger, which was launched on Jan. 28, 1986 at Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Challenger exploded 73 seconds after launch, killing all seven crew members.

Onizuka is buried in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Ernest “Ernie” Pyle

During World War II, journalist Ernest “Ernie” Pyle gained national recognition for his ability to capture the reality of war from the viewpoint of the common soldier. His popular columns, published by the Scripps-Howard newspaper chain in hundreds of newspapers, earned him a Pulitzer Prize for journalism in 1944.

Pyle, who was born in Dana, Ind., in 1900, was killed during a battle on a small island near Okinawa in 1945. He was originally buried there, alongside soldiers, and later moved to a temporary U.S. Army cemetery in Okinawa. In 1949, he was moved again and buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Mabel Smyth

Her work as Hawaii’s first public health nurse earned Mabel Leilani Smyth the nickname Florence Nightingale of the Islands. Because there were no nursing schools in Hawaii, Smyth, who was born in Kona in 1892, attended mainland schools and became the first person of Hawaiian ancestry to receive a degree in public health nursing.

She worked for the Hawaiian Humane Society, which cared for children and well as animals at that time, and then Palama Settlement, where she was head nurse. Smyth helped to establish the first nurses’ training program in Hawaii, and sent trained nurses to rural areas of Oahu where physicians were in short supply. She died in 1936 and is buried in Makiki Cemetery.

Charles Veach

Charles Veach was born in Chicago, Ill., in 1944, grew up in Hawaii and lived his life soaring above the Earth. He was a U.S. Air Force combat pilot in the Vietnam War, a member of the Thunderbirds demonstration squadron and an astronaut with NASA’s Space Shuttle program. He flew to space twice: In 1991 aboard Discovery and in 1992 aboard Columbia.

When he died in 1995 some of his ashes were scattered off Maunalua Bay and the rest interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Curtis Ward and Victoria Ward

From Ward Avenue to Ward Theaters in Kakaako, the Ward name is known by all those who live on Oahu. Curtis Ward, a prosperous Honolulu merchant originally from Kentucky, married Victoria Robinson, a part-Hawaiian woman. They had seven daughters and built “Old Plantation,” a 100-acre property which included all of the land upon which the Neal S. Blaisdell Center sits today, plus all the land makai of that to Ala Moana Boulevard. When her husband died in 1882, Victoria and her daughters ran the estate as Victoria Ward Ltd. Under subsequent descendants it became one of the largest business estates in Hawaii with assets worth millions of dollars. Victoria Ward died in 1935, and along with Curtis, is buried in Makiki Cemetery.

Robert Wilcox

A part-Hawaiian of alii lineage, Robert Wilcox, who was born in 1855, is best known for his role in three failed rebellions. In 1888 and 1889 Wilcox lead small civilian forces against the Hawaiian monarchy after the so-called “Bayonet Constitution” severely limited the powers of the monarch and voting rights. In 1895, Wilcox led a counter revolution against the forces that overthrew the Monarchy two years before. For his role in the 1889 rebellion, Wilcox was accused of high treason, but a jury of his peers refused to convict him. For his role in the 1895 rebellion, he was tried by a military tribunal, convicted and sentenced to be hanged. When Queen Liliuokalani intervened, his sentence was commuted to a term of 35 years in prison and a fine of $10,000. He was pardoned after only a few months imprisonment. Wilcox went on to become the first territorial delegate to Congress, serving from 1900-1902. He died in 1903 and is buried in King Street Catholic Cemetery.

HAWAIIAN CULTURE

Abraham Akaka

During his 27 years as the kahu, or pastor, of Kawaiahao Church, Rev. Abraham Akaka was one of the most beloved and influential leaders of Hawaii in the 20th century. Akaka, who was born in 1917, not only led his parishioners, but the community in many important political and social issues of the day. He was affectionately known as “Hawaii’s Kahu.”

When the U.S. government approved statehood for Hawaii on March 13, 1959, Akaka was chosen to give the keynote address at a service at Kawaiahao Church. His inspiring address was reprinted in anthologies and in 30,000 leaflets.

Akaka, the brother of former U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka, also served as the first chairman of the Hawaii Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights. In 1963, he marched with civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Washington D.C. where King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.

Newsweek magazine described him as having the “charm of a beachboy and the force of Billy Graham.” The Saturday Evening Post called him, “Hawaii’s hustling shepherd.”

Akaka died in 1997 and is buried at Hook Chu Cemetery.

Charles King

Prolific composer Charles King, a Native Hawaiian who was born in 1874 in Honolulu, was responsible for more than 400 songs, including “The Kamehameha Waltz” and the iconic “Ke Kali Nei Au,” aka, “The Hawaiian Wedding Song.” Through his publishing company Charles E. King Music Co. he published three volumes of his songs and at various times conducted the Royal Hawaiian Band. In 1995 King was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame. He died in 1950 and is buried in Nuuanu Memorial Park.

Margaret Lake

After opening her hula halau in 1946, Margaret Lake spent nearly 40 years teaching hula to hundreds of aspiring dancers. Her dedication to hula made her one of the most influential hula teachers of the 20th century.

“Aunty Maiki,” who was born in Honolulu in 1925, studied hula with the foremost dancers of her time, including Lokalia Montgomery. As a teacher herself, Lake passed on what she knew to more than 40 dancers who became master hula teachers as well — kumu hula.

Lake died in 1984 and is buried in Diamond Head Memorial Park. In 2009, she was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

Iolani Luahine

When Harriet Laniha Makekau was four, the Hawaii Island girl from Napoopoo was adopted by her grand-aunt Julia Keahi Luahine, a noted hula practitioner from Kauai and a former dancer with the royal court of King Kalakaua and Queen Liliuokalani. Her first name was changed to Iolani because she suffered from an eye ailment and it was believed that giving her the name “heavenly hawk”would restore her vision.

Keahi Luahine designated Iolani has a “hula kapu,” a sacred dancer who would dedicate her life to hula under strict training and protocols. In her teens she studied hula with cultural expert Mary Kawena Pukui. She performed and taught for the rest of her life, gaining recognition worldwide as one of the foremost dancers of her time. She was invited to perform at the National Folk Festival in Washington, D.C. three times. In 1972, she was designated a “Living Treasure” by the Honpa Hongwangi Mission of Hawaii, and in 2013 she was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame.

Luahine died in 1978 and is buried in Hawaiian Memorial Park.

Donald McDiarmid Sr.

Although he was a professional musician of the big band era, Donald McDiarmid Sr., who was born in 1898, arrived in Hawaii aboard a passenger ship in 1934 and quickly became a passionate supporter of Hawaiian music. He started in the islands as first trumpet with the Harry Owens Royal Hawaiian Orchestra and went on to front his own band, the Don McDiarmid Orchestra, which headlined at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel. He wrote many of the biggest hapa-haole hits of the era, including the popular “When Hilo Hattie Does the Hula Hop.” In 1947, McDiarmid founded Hula Records, which became a leader in the island music industry.

He died in 1977 and is buried at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Punchbowl.

Joseph Nawahi

During the late 19th century, Joseph Nawahi was an influential Hawaiian legislator, lawyer, political activist and newspaper publisher from Kaimu, Hawaii Island. Nawahi, who was born in 1842, served briefly as Minister of Foreign Affairs in Queen Lili’uokalani’s cabinet, was publisher of the Hawaiian language newspaper “Ke Aloha Aina,” which advocated strongly against annexation, and was the President of the Hawaiian Patriot League, which strongly opposed the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaii in 1893. He died in 1896 and is buried in Homelani Memorial Park.

Manuel Nunes

The musical instrument most often identified with Hawaii, the ukulele, owes much of its popularity to Portuguese immigrant Manuel Nunes, a native of Madeira, who arrived in the islands in 1879. Nunes, who was born in 1843, became a major force behind the Hawaii transformation of the four-stringed instrument the Portuguese called machete. Although he came to Hawaii as a plantation laborer, he was a cabinetmaker by trade went on to run an ukulele shop in Honolulu. In 1998, Nunes was inducted into the Ukulele Hall of Fame.

Nunes died in 1922 and is buried in the King Street Catholic Cemetery.

Mary Pukui

Mary Pukui, who was born in 1895, was recognized in her lifetime as the greatest living authority on Hawaiian culture and history. She was also a talented hula dancer, teacher and a prolific composer of more than 150 Hawaiian chants and songs. She worked as a researcher at the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum for more than 20 years and translated hundreds of documents written in Hawaiian, which opened up a whole new world for researchers. Pukui published more than 50 scholarly works including the definitive “Hawaiian Dictionary,” co-authored with Samuel H. Elbert; “Place Names of Hawaii,” co-authored with Elbert and Esther T. Mookini; and “Olelo Noeau Hawaii Proverbs & Poetical Sayings,” which is a massive collection of more than 2,941 proverbs and sayings, all of which are used extensively by scholars, students and lay people around the world.

She died in 1986 and is buried in Hawaiian Memorial Park.

ENTERTAINERS (SINGERS & MUSICIANS)

Alfred Apaka

The world knew Alfred Apaka as “The Golden Voice of Hawaii” and the singer is considered to be one of the most influential performers in the musical history of Hawaii.

Apaka, who was born in Honolulu in 1919 as Alfred Aholo Afat Jr., began his music training at Roosevelt High School playing ukulele and bass. He also sang in the Roosevelt and Mormon Church choirs. His first professional engagement was as a singer for the Don McDiarmid Orchestra at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in 1938.

In the early 1950s, Apaka was seen by Bob Hope at a Waikiki luau and soon was a regular guest on Hope’s radio and TV specials. From then until his death of a heart attack in 1960, Apaka personified the Waikiki entertainment experience. Apaka’s silky tenor voice, his athletic good looks and his charismatic personality made him a nightclub superstar as the headliner at the famed Tapa Room at the Hawaiian Village.

Apaka was only 40 when he died. He is buried in Diamond Head Memorial Park.

Ethel Azama

Ethel Azama, who was born in 1934, was a second generation Okinawan who became a notable jazz singer, recording artist and actress. She sang regularly in nightclubs and in concerts as a soloist and with other local jazz singers. Azama also sang in nightclubs in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Las Vegas, where she performed with musical celebrities such as Mel Torme and Arthur Lyman.

She died in 1984 and is buried in Hawaiian Memorial Park.

Bryant “Mackey” Feary Jr.

Bryant “Mackey” Feary Jr. was one of the charismatic lead singers of Kalapana, a dynamic pop-rock band on the Hawaii music scene in the 1970s and ‘80s.

Feary, who was born in 1955, composed the hits “Nightbird,” “Moon and Stars” and “The Hurt” but left the group in 1978 to form The Mackey Feary Band. He rejoined Kalapana in 1986. In November 1998, Kalapana performed together for the last time at during a 25th anniversary concert at the Waikiki Shell.

In February 1999, Feary hanged himself at Halawa Community Correctional Center where he was serving a 10-year sentence for criminal property damage and drug convictions. He is buried in Hawaiian Memorial Park.

Loyal Garner

A popular singer, composer, pianist, recording artist and TV pitch woman, Loyal Garner was affectionately known as the “Lady of Love.” Her musical range was unique among local singers of her time because she embraced a wide variety of genres, including Hawaiian music, jazz, pop and the blues.

Garner, who was born in 1946, began her professional career while she was a student the University of Hawaii, when she sang at night at the high class Golden Dragon restaurant in the Hilton Hawaiian Village in 1966. She made it big on the local scene as a headliner at the Canoe House in the Ilikai Hotel.

Garner got her “Lady of Love” nickname as host of a local segment of the local Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy telethon. When she heard the telethon would fall short of its goal that year, she tearfully pleaded for pledges and the goal was met.

Garner died in 2001 and is buried at Hawaiian Memorial Park.

Genoa Keawe

Her soaring falsetto voice, flawless skills as an ukulele and standup bass performer and the affection she gave to fans made Genoa Keawe a beloved Hawaiian entertainer locally and internationally.

Keawe, who was born in 1918, traveled the world spreading aloha as Hawaii’s musical ambassador. She recorded over 140 singles and contributed to 20 compilation albums. She even had her own record company, Genoa Keawe Records. Her signature song “Alika” is still a classic favorite today.

She died in 2008 and is buried in Laie Cemetery.

Gabby Pahinui

With talent and charisma, Gabby Pahinui became one of the greatest masters of slack-key guitar and one of Hawaii’s most beloved musicians.

Born in 1921 as Charles Kapono Kahahawai Jr., he was renamed Charles Philip Pahinui by his hanai parents, Philip and Emily Pahinui. A self-taught musician, he learned to play guitar as a boy and got his first paying job when he was a teenager, playing in bars with established Hawaiian musicians. Although Pahinui worked during the day for city road and refuse crews most of his life, his skills as a slack-key virtuoso — and his rich baritone and feathery falsetto — made him a favorite on the nightclub and bar circuit.

Pahinui and his wife Emily “Ma” Pahinui raised 10 children, mostly in Waimanalo, where the musician’s backyard jam sessions with other musicians became legendary.

Pahinui died in 1980 and is buried in Hawaiian Memorial Park.

ACTORS

Kam Fong Chun

When he starred alongside gruff actor Jack Lord in the original version of “Hawaii Five-0,” Kam Fong Chun — whose stage name was Kam Fong — became a household name across the country.

Born in Kakaako in 1918, Chun became interested in acting when he was a student at McKinley, where he was president of the school’s drama club. He was not always an actor. He spent 16 years with the Honolulu Police Department before quitting to run a real estate business, a talent agency and act. He appeared in local theater productions and several Hollywood movies, including “Gidget Goes Hawaiian” with Deborah Walley and James Darren, and “Diamond Head” with Charlton Heston.

Chun died in 2002 and is buried in Diamond Head Memorial Park.

SPORTS

Wally Yonamine

Wally Yonamine, who was born in Olowalu, Maui, in 1925, made history when he became one of the earliest Asian-Americans to play professional football and baseball. He played for one season with the San Francisco 49ers, then played for three championship baseball teams in Japan over the course of 11 years. While in Japan, he later served as manager of the Chunichi Dragons. Yonamine was inducted into the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame in 1994.

Yonamine died in 2011 and is buried in Diamond Head Memorial Park.