Laurie Bachran

Kaneohe's Laurie Bachran, 79, is the winner of the AARP Readers' Choice 2008 Faces of 50+ Real People Model Search for 2008. Laurie will be featured in the March-April 2009 issue of “;AARP The Magazine”; and in an online feature. Both will available in late January. Laurie and her husband, Bill, have six children, 10 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Laurie, Mrs. Hawaii in 1963, is still working as a wellness consultant and as an associate pastor for New Life Church Honolulu. Bill, 82, is also still employed as an independent public relations and media consultant for golf tourneys, including the Sony Open ...

I love the Christmas season—the festive holiday Honolulu city lights, the huge Santa in Ala Moana Center's makai parking lot and the Honolulu Hale tree and display on the grounds, to name a few things. And there is another attraction I enjoy and have attended for most of the 43 years it has been held: the beautiful Christmas tree lighting in the lobby of the Kahala Resort. I began attending the tree lightings in 1967, when it was the Kahala Hilton Hotel and GM Bob Burns was building the new property into one of the best hotels in Hawaii. Because I have been at so many of the Kahala tree lightings, the resort's GM John Blanco and his team are giving me the honor of switching on the tree's lights Dec. 5. It's a big deal for me ...

Singer Kalani Kinimaka called from Maui Wednesday to share information on legendary U. of California basketball coach Pete Newell, who died Nov. 17 at 93 at Rancho Santa Fe, Calif. Pete came here for many years to host the “;Big Man”; and “;Tall Women”; basketball camps. Kalani said Pete loved Hawaii. “;He was a Hawaiian with white skin, a kamaaina with a capital K.”; He also loved to listen to singer-pianist Mahi Beamer's songs and stories of Hawaii. Kalani said whenever Pete was in town he would go with friends such as former Chaminade basketball coach Merv Lopes and ex-Cal football star Curtis Iaukea to see Mahi perform ...

Peggy Chun

When artist Peggy Chun was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig's disease in 2002, the strong, courageous woman refused to let the nasty disease have its way with her. With great effort, she continued painting during her illness. When the disease took away the use of her right hand a year after diagnosis, she used her left to paint. A year later she lost use of her left hand. Give up? No way. She painted with a brush in her teeth for another year, then for one more year with a computer program that read her eye movements. She communicated with eye movements. Peggy's life ended Wednesday night, when she was ready to go. What a wonderful woman! ...

Ben Wood, who sold the Star-Bulletin on Honolulu streets in World War II, writes of people, places and things Wednesdays and Saturdays. E-mail him at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).