DOLORES MARTIN /
HAWAII DEMOCRATIC LEADER

She worked for social
change in Hawaii

Dolores Martin's family came from a
plantation town and valued education

See also: Obituaries

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Star-Bulletin staff

Dolores Martin, who was among the leaders of the Democratic Party in Hawaii when it came to power in 1954 through statehood, died last Saturday in the Queen's Medical Center after suffering a stroke earlier this month. She was 93.

Martin was Hawaii's Democratic national committeewoman from 1956 through 1964, served as one of four electors from Hawaii who cast ballots for President Lyndon B. Johnson, and helped organize local support for John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy in their bids for president. She also ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 1966.

"She worked for social and economic changes to the Democrat Party, which our family felt was the only way there could be changes in the early days of the Territory of Hawaii," said son Watters O. Martin Jr.

Her father A.D. Furtado, a butcher, helped start the Democratic Party on Maui, where Martin was raised. Her mother was a schoolteacher.

Martin Jr. said his mother's family came from a plantation town and understood the value of education. They sent her to Honolulu at age 9 to go to school. She graduated from Punahou in 1928 and attended Woodbury Business College in Los Angeles.

Martin later endowed a merit scholarship at Punahou with the donation of a $1.6 million Waikiki property, said Martin Jr., who noted the endowment pays tuition for 12 students.

Martin married Watters O. Martin, a used-car dealer whom she met when he sold her a car. He was raised a Democrat in Alabama.

Martin Jr. said the assassination of Robert Kennedy was one of the reasons his mother withdrew from national politics.

"She was heartbroken when that happened because she knew the Kennedys," he said. But she remained active in Hawaiian issues and was involved in the Protect Kahoolawe Ohana and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Martin Jr. said his mother voted absentee in the last election and was disappointed by the lack of voter turnout, especially among the children of plantation families.

"She found that hard to understand because people have forgotten what it was like," Martin Jr. said. "They (the early Democrats in Hawaii) struggled so hard."

Besides Martin Jr., she is survived by daughter Mahealani Riley, brother Richard Furtado, sister Gertrude Berger, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. Services are scheduled for 10:30 a.m. Wednesday at Kawaiaha'o Church. Call after 9 a.m.