Jacqueline Ferris / 1931-2004Commissioner helped
Big Isle police through turmoil
Jacqueline Guilbert Faria Blackshear Ferris, 73, of Fairfield, Ohio, a retired Hawaiian Telephone Co. management officer and former Hawaii County police commissioner, died April 16 in Ohio. She was born in Illinois.
As Jackie Blackshear she was chairwoman of the Police Commission in the late 1980s when internal dissension in the Police Department led to the early retirement of Chief Guy Paul.
She was also a volunteer with numerous organizations including Lyman House Memorial Museum, the state Supreme Court Disciplinary Board and the UH-Hilo Chancellor's Advisory Board. In her teenage years she worked as a hair and hand model for cosmetic advertisements.
She moved to Honolulu in 1950 and became Hawaii's first State Water Ski champion. She also became perhaps the only person to water-ski from Molokai to Oahu.
Her career with Hawaiian Telephone began in Honolulu and continued for 26 years when she moved in 1969 to the Hilo area, where she lived until 1990.
"She was always full of silly childhood rhymes and loved to spout Burma Shave jingles," said her stepdaughter, Barbara Andersen.
Private memorial gatherings are being held. Ferris is survived by stepdaughters Barbara Andersen, Joan Blackshear-Leech and Elizabeth Bontecou, all of Hawaii, and five other stepchildren on the mainland.