Rose Keliihonipua Wright Lindsey
1914-2003
Maui woman nurtured
students and Hawaiiana
LAHAINA >> A woman who served as the surrogate mother for hundreds of Lahainaluna High School boarders and as the Hawaiiana adviser for many events in West Maui has died.
Rose "Pua" Keliihonipua Wright Lindsey died Dec. 22 at Maui Memorial Medical Center. She was 89.
Lindsey, born Aug. 19, 1914, in Kona, Hawaii, was raised by her grandfather, shortly after the death of her parents.
She worked in the 1950s and 1960s as the matron of Lahainaluna High School's boarders, making sure the students were well treated and supervising them in the maintenance of their dormitory rooms.
"She taught more by love and aloha," recalled retired Principal Henry "Bruno" Ariyoshi. "She was really a kind, motherly person."
Lindsey and her late husband Ned, a retired police officer, lived on a beachfront property in Lahaina before West Maui became a major resort area.
The couple helped encourage the development of a voyaging canoe group on Maui that built a double-hulled canoe used to educate youths about Hawaiian culture.
For several years in the 1990s, the canoe was kept on their property until the group found a storage area at a nearby county park.
Pua and Ned Lindsey also served as volunteers for the annual Na Mele O Maui festival and pushed the idea of turning the event into a countywide program in which students sang Hawaiian songs.
Pua Lindsey was the Hawaiiana adviser for many of the annual Kamehameha Day Parades through Lahaina and for Kaanapali Beach Hotel, said Lori Sablas, a hotel official.
Edwin Lindsey Jr., one of her sons, said his mother and father never supported statehood.
He said his mother asked him to tell the state officials to shut down the commercial use of the Ahihi Bay area in South Maui "until they get their act together."
She is survived by daughters Roselle Bailey and Mary Helen Lindsey; sons Edwin Jr., Charles and Leonard; hanai son Tyson Caitano; seven grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren.
A funeral procession begins at Malu'ulu'olele Park near the Shigesh Wakida Tennis Court in Lahaina at 1 p.m. today, followed by visitation at 3 p.m. at Waiola Church and services at 4 p.m. Ballard Family Mortuary is assisting with the arrangements.