David Kalākaua Kawānanakoa

David Kalākaua Kawānanakoa
Born March 10, 1904
Honolulu, Oahu
Died May 20, 1953 (aged 49)
Honolulu, Oahu
Occupation Royalty
Spouse(s) Eileen Hutchins
Gertrude Leilani Scott
Cecilia Kuliaikanuuwaialeale
Parent(s) David Kawānanakoa
Abigail Campbell Kawānanakoa

David Kalākaua Kawānanakoa (March 10, 1904 – May 20, 1953), also known as Prince Koke, was a member of the House of Kawānanakoa and the only son of Prince David Kawānanakoa and Princess Abigail Campbell Kawānanakoa.

Life

He was born on March 10, 1904, at Honolulu, Oahu.[1] He was christened at the St. Augustine's Church on May 22, 1904.[2] His siblings were Abigail Kapiolani Kawānanakoa and Lydia Liliuokalani Kawānanakoa.[3]:166 He was educated abroad due to his father's status as a former prince and politician and like his father also attend a military academy in California. He attended Oʻahu College, Hawaiʻi; Fay School, in Southborough, Massachusetts; Taft School, Watertown, Connecticut, and Belmont Military Academy, Belmont, California.. Kawānanakoa also served in World War II with the US Coast Guard.[4]

Prince David Kalākaua Kawānanakoa in 1937 during the murder trial.

Kawānanakoa married three times: first to Eileen Hutchins, daughter of Rear-Admiral Charles Thomas Hutchins, USN, sometime Commander of the US Pacific Fleet, in c. 1929 at Honolulu, Oahu. He divorced Eileen in 1931 and remarried to Gertrude Leilani (17 October 1904 – 26 January 1978), former wife of Lindsay Anton Faye and married thirdly to George R. Humphrey, and elder daughter of Walter Henry Scott, by his wife, Mary Eleanor Kaonohilani, daughter of William Hyde Rice. He divorced her two years later in 1933. He entered a common-law marriage with Arvilla Kinslea. On October 24, 1937, after a wild party, Kinslea was found dead and stabbed in the neck with a broken piece of crockery. Kawānanakoa had received a suspended sentence for killing a woman due to his reckless driving, four years prior. He confessed to the murder and was sentenced to several years in prison.[3]:171[5][6][7] His last marriage, on October 27, 1949, was to (Princess) Cecilia Kuliaikanuʻuwaiʻaleʻale, daughter of Robert Kameeiamoku Parker Waipa, by his wife, Madaline Kekuakapuokane, daughter of Abraham Fornander.

He died of a heart attack at Honolulu, Oahu, on May 20, 1953, at the age of 49 and was buried there in the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii at Mauna ʻAla in Nuʻuanu Valley. He was the last royal to be interred at the Royal Mausoleum.[8] He died issueless but the Kawānanakoa family survives today through the descendants of his sisters Abigail Kapiolani Kawānanakoa and Lydia Liliuokalani Kawānanakoa.[9]

References

  1. ↑ "Born". Evening Bulletin. March 11, 1904.
  2. ↑ "The Christening of a Prince". The Hawaiian Star. May 23, 1904.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hawkins, Richard A. (2003). "Princess Abigail Kawananakoa: the Forgotten Territorial Native Hawaiian Leader". Hawaiian Journal of History (Honolulu: Hawaii Historical Society) 37: 163–177. hdl:10524/354.
  4. ↑ Christopher Buyers. "The Kamehameha Dynasty Genealogy". Royal Ark. p. 10. Retrieved 2010-03-26.
  5. ↑ Time Inc (8 November 1937). LIFE. Time Inc. p. 108. ISSN 0024-3019.
  6. ↑ True crime, Dark vomit.
  7. ↑ "Hawaiian Scion Held in Slaying". The Spartanburg Herald. October 27, 1937.
  8. ↑ Catherine Cruz (April 22, 2013). "Abigail Kawananakoa pushes for new crypt at Mauna 'Ala". KITV News.
  9. ↑ "Descendant of Island Royalty is Dead at 49". The Spokesman-Review. May 21, 1953.