Fanny Kekelaokalani

Fanny Kekuʻiapoiwa Kekelaokalani Young Lewis Naʻea (1806–1880), was a member of the royal family of the Kingdom of Hawaii, and mother of a Queen consort.

Early life

She was born, July 21, 1806 in Kawaihae, in the Kohala District, on the Island of Hawaiʻi.^[2][1] Her father was John Young, a former English sailor who became the royal advisor of Kamehameha I. Her mother was the High Chiefess Kaʻoanaʻeha, the niece of Kamehameha I. She was given the name of Fanny or Fannie and sometimes referred to as Pane the Hawaiian version of Fanny. Her Hawaiian name Kekelaokalani derived from her great-great grandmother, the High Chiefess Kekelaokalani, the sister of Keeaumoku-nui, the grandfather of Kamehameha the Great. Her name Kekuiapoiwa derived from Kamehameha's mother and her great-grandmother. She was raised on her father's homestead on a barren hillside overlooking Kawaihae Bay. It is now part of Puʻukoholā Heiau National Historic Site. She grew up with two younger sisters, Grace and Jane, and younger brother, John. She had two older half-brothers by her father's first marriage to Namokuelua: Robert and James. The siblings were hapa-haole or part Caucasian, but considered of aliʻi (royal) class through their mother, and John Young's honorary title of "Olohana".^[3]:1-3

Marriage

Her first marriage was to Henry Coleman Lewis,^[4] a haole or foreigner, and she had a daughter Mary Polly Paʻaʻāina (1833–1853), who attended Royal School along with other royal children. Later, she married High Chief George Naʻea. With Naʻea she had a daughter Emma on January 2, 1836. She allowed her daughter to be adopted by her sister Grace Kamaikui and her husband Dr. Rooke according to the Hawaiian tradition known as hānai. Emma's birthplace has been debated as Kawaihae, Lahaina or Honolulu. Most likely Emma was born in Honolulu. Her father John Young died at her sister's home in Honolulu on December 16, only three weeks before Emma's birth. He had been living there for some time under Dr. Rooke's care, and it appears the Young family, including Fanny and Naʻea, gathered in Honolulu, perhaps in anticipation of his death. They were present at his funeral. It is unlikely the Rookes would have allowed Fanny in her last stages of pregnancy to risk the health of the baby by sailing the rough channels to Kawaihae or Lahainna.^[3]:8 After Emma's adoption Fanny might have divorced her husband Naʻea. Naʻea later contracted leprosy in 1838, died in 1854, and she became a widow.

Later life

She was present at the deathbed of King Kamehameha V in 1872. All the other women eligible to become monarch were there: his half-sister Princess Ruth Keʻelikolani, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, Queen Emma, and Lydia Kamakaeha Dominis.^[5] Fanny died September 4, 1880, in Honolulu, Oahu. She was 74 years old. She had lived passed all her siblings and close relatives. She was the second last surviving member of the Young family; the last was her daughter Emma who had become Queen consort of Kamehameha IV and lived until April 25, 1885. Fanny was buried in the Wylie Tomb in the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii known as Mauna ʻAla.^[6]

Family tree

References