Iva Kinimaka — Waikiki headliner, musician, songwriter and businessman — died Tuesday in Honolulu. He was 76.
Born Ivar Kinimaka in Honolulu, Kinimaka graduated from Kailua High School in 1958 and became a Waikiki headliner in the 1960s when the post-statehood growth of Hawaii’s visitor industry created unprecedented opportunities for island entertainers. He broke into the Waikiki entertainment scene with engagements at Tropics at Seaside and Kalakaua avenues, and Duke Kahanamoku’s in the International Market Place. He achieved star status at the Cock’s Roost, another International Market Place nightspot.
In the years that followed, Kinimaka was one of Waikiki’s A-list celebrities alongside Don Ho, Dick Jensen, Loyal Garner, Melveen Leed, Nephi Hannemann, Zulu and John Rowles. One of his last Waikiki showroom engagements was performing as a member of “Hawaii’s Very Best” with Garner, Hannemann, Jensen and Leed in 1993 at the Hilton Hawaiian Village.
Leed remembered him as “a kind-hearted man with many friends. He was a grand cook and an inspiring entertainer, a great composer, a good father to his kids, and a man with the perfect smile. He was always smiling.”
She said Kinimaka was in good spirits when she visited him in the hospital on Sunday, his birthday.
“We were laughing and talking about old times. He was talking like he was going to go back to work (at his lunch wagon),” she said.
Leed and Kimo Kahoano will co-emcee Kinimaka’s services at the Elks Club on Tuesday.
“He was one of the many entertainers I really admired … and he was a great cook!” said fellow Waikiki entertainer Jeff Apaka, who serves as director of community relations at the Waikiki Community Center. “He always had a smile on his face.”
Kinimaka’s most lasting contribution to Hawaiian music was the hapa haole song “He Aloha Mele,” which he wrote for his daughter, Chamonix Mele Kinimaka, in 1980 and released on his second album, “Just Singing It All,” later that year. Easy to sing, and perfect for hula, it is one of the most memorable hapa haole songs written since statehood in 1959, and has been recorded by artists ranging from Keola Beamer and Herb “Ohta-san” Ohta to Konishiki and Tia Carrere.
One of Kinimaka’s last public appearances as an entertainer was an impromptu performance at the formal unveiling of the Hilton Hawaiian Village History Wall on March 29 on the Tapa Concourse. During the informal “local style” festivities that followed the formal program, Kinimaka joined the musicians onstage and sang “Keawaiki,” “Tiny Bubbles” and “He Aloha Mele.”
Kinimaka was headlining the Hilton Hawaiian Village Long House in the mid-’70s when he opened a lunch wagon at Sandy Beach and become known as the “singing chef.” He subsequently founded Iva’s Komplete Katering and provided the food as well as the entertainment while he was the headline entertainer aboard Paradise Cruises. Kinimaka also bought and renovated Diner’s Drive-In in Kalihi. A bigger Hawaiian restaurant across the parking lot from Diner’s turned out to be short-lived, but his white lunch truck, Iva’s Hawaiian Grinds, was a landmark on Sand Island Access Road until this summer.
In addition to Chamonix, Kinimaka is survived by son Iva P., daughters Pauahi and Kaiulani, brother James and sister Priscilla.
Services are set for 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Tuesday at the Elks Club in Waikiki. Aloha attire is requested; loose flowers and lei welcome. Condolences may be posted at oahumortuary.com.
