Anna Kuulei Kahanamoku ( Furtado; September 28, 1911 – March 28, 1969) was a Hawaiian teacher who became an elected Fourth District member of the Hawaii Territorial House of Representatives. After Hawaii was admitted to statehood, she served in the

Hawaii Senate The Hawaii Senate is the upper house of the Hawaii State Legislature. It consists of twenty-five members elected from an equal number of constituent districts across the islands and is led by the President of the Senate, elected from the membe ...

Early life

She was born Anna Kuulei Furtado on September 28, 1911 to Antonio and Lucy Furtado in

Lahaina, Maui Lahaina ( haw, Lāhainā) is the largest census-designated place (CDP) in West Maui, Maui County, Hawaii, United States and includes the Kaanapali and Kapalua beach resorts. As of the 2020 census, the CDP had a resident population of 12,702. Laha ...

. Her ancestry was Portuguese, Chinese and Hawaiian. Her early education was at Kamehameha Schools. She matriculated at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

, earning a BA before returning home to pursue graduate work at the

University of Hawaii A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, th ...

Career

Before accepting a teaching position at a junior high school in Hoolehua, Molokai, she worked at

Palama Settlement Palama Settlement is a nonprofit social service agency located in Honolulu, Hawaii that was established in 1896. It currently serves the Kalihi and Kāpalama neighborhoods of Honolulu. History In September 1941, Palama hosted future baseball ...

in the

Kalihi Kalihi is a neighborhood of Honolulu on the island of Oʻahu in Hawaiʻi, United States. Split by the Likelike Highway (Route 63), it is flanked by downtown Honolulu to the east and Mapunapuna, Moanalua and Salt Lake to the west. Kalihi is the ...

area. Following her two-year stint on Molokai, she then taught for 15 years at Washington Intermediate School in Honolulu. In 1950, she left teaching to accept an appointment as sales representative for

Pan American World Airways Pan American World Airways, originally founded as Pan American Airways and commonly known as Pan Am, was an American airline that was the principal and largest international air carrier and unofficial overseas flag carrier of the United States ...

. Elected to the Territorial House of Representatives 1954-1958, she did so to get more funds and services allocated for education, and was chairman of the Education Committee 1956-1958. Following the 1959

Hawaii Admission Act The Admission Act, formally An Act to Provide for the Admission of the State of Hawaii into the Union () is a statute enacted by the United States Congress and signed into law by President Dwight D. Eisenhower which dissolved the Territory of Ha ...

, the territory became the 50th state in the union. At the end of her service as a territorial representative, she was employed as an executive with Pan American World Airways in 1960. She was elected to the state Board of Education in 1961, becoming its chairman in 1963. Anna was elected to the Hawaii State Senate in 1964, serving as chairman of Public Employment Committee, and as a member of Education Ways and Means Committee.

Personal life

She was married to aquatic athlete

Sargent Kahanamoku Sargent Hiikua Kahanamoku (March 5, 1910 – May 16, 1993) was a Native Hawaiian aquatic athlete and public relations spokesperson for Standard Oil Company. Sculptor Malvina Hoffman used him as her model for part of The Races of Mankind exhibit a ...

, brother of Olympic medalist Duke Kahanamoku. The couple were both active in local theatre productions. In 1961, they were King and Queen of

Aloha Week The Aloha Festivals are an annual series of free cultural celebrations observed in the state of Hawaii in the United States. It is the only statewide cultural festival in the nation. Highlights include the presentation of the Royal Court, a ho'o ...

. Anna was 1968 residential drive chairman for the American Cancer Society, and was active on several local boards and charities. She died at home on March 28, 1969. A thousand people attended a memorial for her held at

Kawaiahaʻo Church Kawaiahaʻo Church is a historic Congregational church located in Downtown Honolulu on the Hawaiian Island of Oʻahu. The church, along with the Mission Houses, comprise the Hawaiian Mission Houses Historic Site, which was designated a U.S. Nati ...

in Honolulu, where Rev.

Abraham Akaka Abraham Kahikina Akaka (February 21, 1917 – September 10, 1997) was an American clergyman. For 27 years, Rev. Akaka was Kahu (shepherd) of Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother was of Hawaiian ancestry, and his father was of Hawaii ...

eulogized her as, "a racial rainbow of colors imbued and accepted in one person."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kahanamoku, Anna 1911 births 1969 deaths Hawaii state senators Members of the Hawaii Territorial Legislature Women territorial legislators in Hawaii Women state legislators in Hawaii People from the Territory of Hawaii Native Hawaiian people American people of Chinese descent American people of Portuguese descent 20th-century American legislators Native Hawaiian women in politics 20th-century American women politicians Asian-American people in Hawaii politics