Hawaiian music ambassador Rose Moe, who strummed the ukulele and guitar for six decades around the world, died Friday at age 90. Rose Moe performed
By Lori Tighe
Hawaiian music for
six decades
Star-BulletinMoe of Laie, who won the Hawaii Musicians Award as a living legend, traveled with her husband, Tau, playing Hawaiian music from Paris to Rangoon.
They met Gandhi in India, where Rose gave birth to their son Lani during riots.
A taxi equipped with dual machine guns escorted Rose to the hospital for his birth.
They also met Adolf Hitler in Germany at a fund-raiser for German orphans. The Moes feared the meeting because they smuggled many Jewish musician friends out of the country.
A few years ago, Tau Moe said that guards once asked Rose why she wore three fur coats. She was smuggling out furs that belonged to their Austrian agent. Rose answered: “I'm from Hawaii so I get very cold.”
The Moes began their amazing adventure in the 1920s when they left Hawaii as teen-agers to work for Madame Riviere, a French ambassador touring the colonial outposts of Europe.
They performed with Madame Riviere's Hawaiians, a group of musicians and dancers, according to Bob Brozman, an authority on historical Hawaiian music.
In the 1930s, the Moes went independent. They toured Singapore, the Middle East, Germany, Italy and India.
The family found many fans of Hawaiian music in Egypt, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Switzerland, Russia, Denmark, England, Sweden and Finland.
Tau, who survived Rose, once said he believed the greatest number of musicians and fans of Hawaii are found in Scotland, where fans asked them many questions about Hawaii, according to Tony Tadaro's “The Golden Years of Hawaiian Entertainment.”
The Moes retired to Hawaii in the 1980s and were rediscovered by Brozman, who released numerous albums documenting the best of Hawaiian music from 1915 to 1935.
Brozman said he was rummaging through a San Francisco basement in the 1970s when he came upon a series of rare Hawaiian records.
One recording by Madame Riviere's Hawaiians made a deep impression on him.
“I was struck by the deep, ethnic, emotionally laden music,” Brozman wrote.
A decade later, Brozman, known for his large 78-rpm Hawaiian record collection, almost dropped the phone when Tau Moe called him.
Brozman recorded a landmark album of the Moes in 1986. The historic recreation of the family's Hawaiian music from 60 years ago received rave international reviews, including the Library of Congress Select List Award.
Born in Niulii, Kohala, Rose Moe is survived by husband Tau; son Lani; daughter Dorian Moe-Vineula; sisters Mary Sorensen and Caroline.
Friends may call from 9 to 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Laie North Stake, Eighth Ward Chapel. Services will be at 10 a.m., with burial at 11:15 a.m. Wednesday in Laie Cemetery. Aloha attire.
Former University of Hawaii
By Harold Morse
ROTC leader dies
Star-BulletinRetired Army Col. Richard Spangler, former head of the Hawaii ROTC and one of the oldest Pearl Harbor survivors, died last Monday in El Paso, Texas. He was 89.
He had lived in El Paso for the past 41 years.
He left Hawaii in 1957 for his final assignment at Fort Bliss, Texas, before his 1961 retirement after 30 years of service.
At his departure from Hawaii, he had completed three years as professor of military science at the University of Hawaii and head of the U.S. Army Instructor Group.
At the time of the Dec. 7, 1941, Pearl Harbor attack, he was captain of a coast artillery battery at Fort Barrette in Ewa, later serving as wartime executive officer of the 57th Coast Artillery Battalion here.
Graduating from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1931, the Pennsylvania native also served two pre-war years in the Philippines. Following World War II and further military education and postwar Pentagon service, he was assigned in 1950 to the Military Assistance Advisory Group in Iran.
He returned in 1952 to command an anti-aircraft artillery group at Fort Hancock, N.J. He transferred to New York City the following year and back to Hawaii in 1954.
He held civilian jobs with aircraft companies after his Army retirement and later operated his own business which included motorcycle rentals and other activity.
He is survived by son Richard II of Woodland Hills, Calif.; brothers, Clark, Sterling and Weldon, all of York, Pa., and a grandchild.
Memorial services took place on Saturday at Fort Bliss, Texas.
His ashes will be placed in the Columbarium of the Old Cadet Chapel at West Point, next to those of his wife, Dolores, who died in 1991.
Donations are suggested to West Point Fund, Association of Graduates, USMA, 698 Mills Road, West Point, N.Y. 10996.
Mary Amar, 86, of Pepeekeo, Hawaii, a homemaker, died Thursday at Hilo Medical Center. She was born in Honomu, Hawaii. She is survived by sons Thomas, Frank, Eugene and Manuel; daughters Rosaline Berrios, Claudine Roman, Rofina Burns, Mary Ann Pacheco, Mary Jane Fiesta and Florentina Nabarro; brothers Jacinth, Manuel and Edwin Medeiros; sisters Dorothy Farias, Adelaide “Lyda” Strunk, Violet Demotta and Genevieve Badua; 34 grandchildren, 45 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. Prayer service: 7 p.m. tomorrow at Memorial Mortuary Chapel; call: 6 to 9 p.m. Mass: 9 a.m. Wednesday at Good Shepherd Catholic Church in Honomu. Call after 8 a.m. Burial: Alae Cemetery. Casual attire. No flowers.
