JIMMY THOMAS, one of my Roosevelt class of ’49 football teammates, sent me a letter after reading in my May 4 column that PBS Hawaii was to film a pledge program at ‘Iolani Palace. The program, featuring many of Hawaii’s leading entertainers, will air on Kamehameha Day, June 11. The grand staircase was one of the areas where filming took place. Jimmy writes that his grandfather, Christian Augustus Gertz, his mother Helen’s father, built the staircase in 1882. Helen was the last of Gertz’s 11 children.
Jimmy lives in Volcano on the Big Isle with his wife, Carolyn. He was a Marine private in the Korean War and received a Purple Heart. He later became a Hawaii National Guard pilot. He gave some of his grandfather’s tools to Kimo Thomas, his and Carolyn’s third of four children, who is a carpenter. Jimmy and Carolyn marked their 50th wedding anniversary 10 years ago with a family reunion at the Old Archives Building on the palace grounds with 40 of their relatives. The pair celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary on Feb. 1. That’s big! Congratulations. "We don’t plan on having any more children," said Jimmy the comedian. Pretty Carolyn was a Roosevelt 1950 grad. She was a bigger deal than Jimmy in school because she was a song leader at RHS football games two years in a row …
BOARDING: Former Hawaiian Airlines hostess Lorraine "Brownie" Williams, right, had a big surprise when she spotted a DC3 aircraft on the Lanai airport tarmac. Marc Nuzzo was flying the cargo plane for Kamaka Air, owned by Jerry Jackson. It is a Super DC3 built in 1944 and retrofitted in 1950 for the Cold War. Brownie notified members of Koa‘e Kea, former HAL hostesses who flew on DC3s, starting in World War II. They made arrangements to visit the plane when it was back at Honolulu. Kamaka’s Bill Fiffles guided them to the aircraft and took questions. HAL retired pilot Capt. Bob Maguire, HAL archivist, retired Capt. Rick Rogers and former DC3 hostess Hale Kaohu Rowland climbed aboard. Bob entered the tiny cockpit, squeezed himself between equipment and sat in the captain’s seat, smiling broadly. Hale said, "Memories of my 1952-57 years as a hostess on the DC3s came rushing in my thoughts. It was a glamorous, glorious and special time of our lives. To be able to be in one after all these years is fortunate indeed!" Besides Brownie, others in the visit included retired HAL pilot Capt. Richard Gessler, Carole Mae Stibbard Vanderford, who with Abigail Chong founded Koa‘e Kea, Eula May "Skippy" Sweet, and Mercy Bacon and her daughter Monica Bacon …
KAMAAINA Terry Stoddard, 71, is legally blind in one eye but his other eye is really good. Terry scored two holes-in-one in the same round last week, just a half-hour apart. Terry was playing the Willow Creek course in Sun City, Ariz. … Mauna Kea Beach Hotel aced the top spot as best tennis resort in Hawaii for the 10th year in a row, according to Tennis Resorts Online’s annual survey of racquet-wielding tennis vacationers. Mauna’s Kea’s oceanfront 11-court Seaside Tennis Club placed No. 6 in TRO’s ranking of the top 75 tennis resorts worldwide …
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Ben Wood, who sold newspapers on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things. Email him at bwood@staradvertiser.com.
