She would have been 79 on Sept. 20.

Abreu was honored by the YWCA Leadership Luncheon, the state House and Mayor Jeremy Harris in April for "significant contributions to women's growth and leadership in Hawaii."

She retired from the Honolulu Police Department in 1978 after 25 years in the department, the last three years as a detective in the rape investigation detail.

She was the first woman assigned to criminal investigation.

In 1972 Abreu filed a discrimination suit against the Police Department about the promotion process.

Her class-action settlement two years later opened the department not only to women but to men who didn't meet a 5-foot, 8-inch minimum height requirement.

Visitation will be allowed at 8 a.m. Thursday at Co-Cathedral of St. Theresa with funeral services to be held at 10:30 a.m.

Burial will be at Valley of the Temple Cemetery at noon.

She is survived by four sons, Frank Daryl, Frank Jr., Frank Walter, and Frank Dean; one daughter, Francine Shultz; one brother, Daniel Miranda; four sisters, Diane Isaacs, Fray'ne Burke, Stella Tuiman and Helen Le Blanc; and 15 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.

She was named Hawaii's mother of the year in 1978.

When Abreu was promoted to detective in the Criminal Investigation Division in 1975, there were fewer than 15 women in the 1,500-member force.

Today, their ranks have grown to 149 - about 8 percent of the 1,786 sworn officers.

Abreu, in an interview earlier this year, said she never harbored any ill will toward the department.

"I have no hard feelings," she said in a Star-Bulletin April 4 interview.

"I'm not that kind of person."