By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
Lei Day Queen Charlene Campbell works as a dancer
and narrator at the Kodak Hula Show.

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Lei queen
inspired by mother

‘Her strength is like
the raffia that binds a haku lei
together,’ she says

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Charlene Kalae Campbell's mother came along for moral support when she competed for lei queen this year, and was driven to tears.

The candidates were asked, "What does Lei Day mean to you?" Campbell's answer was a tribute to her mother, Leilani Nakamura, who taught her how to make leis.

"I compared her to a beautiful haku lei. Her strength is like the raffia that binds it together. The ferns surround and caress the flowers yet are the background. That's how she was with her children."

The poetic tribute, spoken in the Hawaiian language, helped persuade the judges to give the title to the 46-year-old mother of four and grandmother of two children.

She will reign over the city's annual May 1 festivities tomorrow at Kapiolani Park, which will include an all-day program of music and hula, lei-making competition and displays.

It's familiar territory for Campbell, who has danced with the Kodak Hula Show at the Waikiki Shell for 25 years. She now shares the narrator role with Kimo Kahoano at the popular tourist attraction three mornings a week.

Make that family territory. Nakamura, who formerly danced and is now the hostess, is in her 41st year with the Kodak show.

Campbell's daughter Kawehilani dances in the show, and so did another daughter, Darcy.

"This is the fun job I have," said Campbell. "We have a ball when we all come down here."

Her full-time employment is "the muscle job." She is a mail handler at the Honolulu Airport post office, lifting parcels and driving the dollies that haul mail to airline flights and postal delivery trucks.

The night-shift job leaves her free to play guitar with Chinky Mahoe's hula halau and with a Hawaiian group that plays occasionally at International Marketplace.

The lei queen title alternates among three generations of women. One year it's a young woman, next a mature woman, then a kupuna or grandmother.

Campbell said she had never thought of entering until she helped daughter Darcy, who competed two years ago and was selected as one of the princesses.

"I enjoyed watching the things they went through, the excitement of getting ready for it. I decided this is my time."

The competition measures the women's knowledge of Hawaiian heritage beyond the traditional use of flowers as an art form.

Campbell had to memorize her presentation in the Hawaiian language, which her grandparents spoke but was not taught to the younger generations.

"When I was growing up, they said, 'Learn your English.'"

She arrived for the judging day to find other contestants in full beauty pageant mode, toting new clothing and surrounded by an entourage of makeup artists and hair stylists.

"I danced in the holoku from work," she said and, with just her daughter's help, piled her wavy hair atop her head in the quick-change style of a veteran entertainer.

For the speech, on which they are judged for poise and character, she wore a favorite outfit from the 1982 Merrie Monarch Festival in which she danced with the halau of Leilani Sharpe Mendez.

The contestants must show their own lei-making ability. She made an old-fashioned style of ginger lei with occasional orangish petals of the daisylike African gerbera.

What's the lei queen's own favorite lei?

"The pakalana lei I get each morning for the show, because my mommy makes it for me. I'm the oldest and still her baby."

Lei Day submissions due tomorrow Entries for tomorrow's Lei Day lei-making competition, Leis of the World, should be submitted between 7:30 and 9 a.m. tomorrow to the Kapiolani Park bandstand. All of the leis will be on display from 12:30 to 6 p.m. Entries in all categories must be made with natural plant materials. Besides the masters division for veteran lei-makers, cash prizes are awarded to novices and youngsters. Contest information is available from the city Department of Parks and Recreation culture and arts section, 547-7393. A free program at Kapiolani Park's bandstand will begin at 10 a.m. with a Royal Hawaiian Band concert. Lei Queen Charlene Kalae Campbell and Princesses R. U'ilani Fontes and Keal'i Chillingworth-Grilho will be invested at 11 a.m. There will be music and hula from 12:30 to 5:30 p.m. The Youth Lei Contest will be from 3:30 to 6 p.m.