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A Tribute to Moe Keale 

His Beachboy Funeral

Moe Keale's life was celebrated with song and prayer beginning at 4:30 p.m. Monday at Kawai'ahao Church, where friends called until 6 p.m. The service was held  from 6 to 7 p.m., which was followed by another visitation from 7 to 9 p.m.

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On May 4, 2002, there was then a musical celebration of Keale's life that started at noon at the Hula Mound at Kuhio Beach. A brief ceremony took place on the beach at 6 p.m., followed by a scattering of the ashes at sea at sunset.

"A hundred or so feet away is the new Hula Mound, the pâ. Ceremonies and hula performed here are not limited to those designed for visitors. In May, for example, an afternoon-long musical memorial for one of Hawai'i's best-loved entertainers took place at the pa.

I was there for the event. The man it celebrated was my dear friend and hânai (adoptive) brother, Moe Keale. His childhood, adolescence and young adulthood centered on Waikîkî. Before he was famous as an entertainer, he was a Waikîkî beachboy. He always said he wanted a beachboy funeral. He got what he wanted.

The music ended before sunset. After a brief ceremony, family and friends in outrigger canoes and catamarans accompanied Moe's ashes out to sea. Near the reef, we were met by the great voyaging canoe Hawai'i Loa. Moe's wife and son gave his ashes to the sea.

We returned to the beach just as the sun prepared to set. Clouds had masked the sun all day, but as we left the canoes, the clouds in the northwest sky slipped away and the sun sat on the edge of the sea by Moe's beloved island of Ni'ihau.

It was a perfect day, a perfect beachboy memorial, in the perfect place."

Source:  Martha Noyes: Freelance writer, Moe's hânai sister, and co-composer of Lei of Aloha 


Martha Noyes
Photo, courtesy of Bess Press 

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