Beach boy Abraham "Purple" Kahui met Erie and Ken Cunningham, of Canada, in an elevator at the Waikiki Shore one day in 1965 and invited them to his house for dinner that night. [ ABRAHAM 'PURPLE' KAHUI / 1928-2003 ]
Waikiki ‘beach boy’
was filled with alohaNiihau-born Kahui was
an avid paddler and bodysurferBy Rosemarie Bernardo
rbernardo@starbulletin.com"That's how it all started," said Erie Cunningham, of West Vancouver. She said Kahui instantly treated them like part of his family, and they remained good friends ever since.
"He gave me one of his ukuleles, and we used to play together," she said.
Kahui worked at various concession stands in Waikiki and was an avid canoe paddler and bodysurfer who competed in bodysurfing meets in Makaha during the 1950s and 1960s.
He died last Tuesday at Castle Medical Center after complications following surgery for lung cancer. He was 74.
Kahui was born on Niihau on Oct. 29, 1928, and raised on Kauai. He later moved to Oahu, where he was known as one of the beach boys who dived for coins that tourists threw into Honolulu Harbor when ocean liners arrived during the mid-1950s.
"Purple was a very humble person," said Jojo Keanu, chairwoman of the Beach Boys Association. "There was never a wild hair on his back. He was absolutely gracious."
Because most of his time was spent under the sun, the waterman was mostly known by his nickname, Purple, because of his dark skin tone.
Kahui's wife, Max Kohn Kahui, said a tourist ran into him along the beach and said, "You're so dark, you must be purple."
"It just stuck," she said.
Kahui and his wife first met in January 1960 when she arrived in Honolulu from Vancouver, Canada. They had gone their separate ways but bumped into each other 25 years later at the Hula Bowl. They soon married and spent time traveling around the world.
Max Kohn Kahui said she recently received an e-mail from one of Kahui's friends that read, "Hawaii has lost some of its aloha with the loss of Purple."
Kahui is also survived by stepsons Danny and Stanley Palama; stepdaughters Charlotte Palama, Linda Fountain, Brenda Barausse and Sandra Dante; sisters Lynn Burns and Lydia Amona; sister-in-law Carole Kahui; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Services are set for 1:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Joachim's Catholic Church in Punaluu. Some of Kahui's ashes will be scattered offshore after the service. A luau will follow. At 7:30 a.m. Sunday, more of Kahui's ashes will be scattered from a catamaran off the Sheraton Moana Surfrider hotel in Waikiki.
Family members will scatter Kahui's remaining ashes on Kauai on Monday.