Whatever
Happened To...
An update on past news
Entertainer Veary
semiretired and enjoying
quiet life on MauiQuestion: What ever happened to entertainer Emma Veary?
Answer: Emma Veary, who thrilled Waikiki audiences for several decades with her gorgeous voice and an elegant sense of style and graciousness that evoked the ambience of an older and more regal era in Hawaiian history, is alive and well and living on Maui.
Veary describes herself as "semiretired" but still enjoys singing. Although she enjoys life on Maui, she occasionally visits Oahu, and appeared with Jim Nabors last weekend in his annual Christmas concert, "A Merry Christmas with Friends and Nabors," at the Hawaii Theatre.
"I'm enjoying living up there (in Maui) in my little cottage. As a rule I'm kind of a stay-at-home unless I'm working, but the vocal cord is an instrument, and if you don't use it you lose a lot," she says.
Veary, who was married to legendary local disc jockey Hal "J. Akuhead Pupule" Lewis during the height of her Waikiki showroom days, is now helping a friend four days a week with an herb business.
"It's been lots of fun for me," she says. "It gets me out of the house, but it's close by and it's such a lovely environment. We're up about 4,000 feet and have a glorious view of Maui."
Her other activities include selling her late mother's book, "Change We Must," taking care of her plants and overseeing some major renovations of the "cottage" she shares with her Pomeranian, Prince.
"I am just having a wonderful time," she says.
"I enjoy staying at home because it's something I never got to do (when I was younger and singing full time). All your life when you're working, you never get to spend time at home and read or just do nothing. Now I can enjoy it."
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