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Whatever
Happened...
Question: What ever happened to Lillian "Linda" Dela Cruz? ‘Hawaii’s Canary’
now works for Hawaiian
rights on Big IsleAnswer: Former Hawaii songbird Lillian "Linda" Dela Cruz, once known as "Hawaii's Canary," continues advocating Hawaiian rights, an interest she has pursued since retiring from singing and moving from Oahu to the Big Island in the 1970s.
Dela Cruz, 70, began her career in the 1940s, singing with friends as "The Halekulani Girls."
She first ran for public office in the 1980s. She has run so many times for the state House of Representatives, Senate and Office of Hawaiian Affairs that she has lost track of the count, she says. She is uncertain about running this year.
She usually ran as a Democrat, but in 1998 she ran for the House as a Republican.
Although unsuccessful in her races, she and daughter Josephine Tanimoto were among those who succeeded in obtaining a court order in October invalidating the lease of Hawaii Homes land at Kawaihae to Waimana Enterprises for a proposed power plant. The court agreed that an environmental study should have been done.
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