Letuli Olo Misilagi, 84, father of fire knife dance

Associated Press

Letuli Olo Misilagi of American Samoa — a ranking traditional leader, former territorial senator, businessman, entertainer and father of the fire knife dance — has died. He was 84.

Letuli died July 22 at The Queen's Medical Center with his wife, Patricia, and family members by his side. He had been admitted to the hospital the day before with breathing problems.

Most people referred to him as Olo, the high talking chief title from Leone village that he held for 37 years. In 2001, he was bestowed the paramount chief title of "Letuli" — one of the only five paramount chief titles in American Samoa.

Faleomavaega Eni, American Samoa's delegate to Congress, said Letuli served his people well.

"His passing is a tremendous loss for our people. He is certainly one of the pioneers that put Samoa on the map during his early years in Hollywood and throughout the world," Eni said.

As high talking chief of Leone, he served a four-year term as the village senator in 1977 and was re-selected by the village to the Senate in 1993. In 1983, Olo Letuli became an associate judge on the High Court and served for seven and a half years.

Letuli began dancing in 1934, when he was 15, in American Samoa during school song and dance demonstration day.

Letuli was the first Samoan to order tap dance shoes from the Sears catalog. The package included an instruction booklet from Fred Astaire, tap shoes and a board. He practiced so often that friends started to call him Freddie.

Letuli was instrumental in organizing American Samoa's first World Fire Knife Competition, held two months ago. The organizers, Flaming Sword of Samoa Association, paid tribute to Letuli at that time and honored his contribution to the art of fire knife dancing.

In a May newspaper interview, Letuli said that he came up with the idea for fire knife dancing when he was 27. He was invited to participate in an event at Convention State Park in San Francisco where he saw many unique performers, including a young girl performing with light bulbs and a Hindu man who blew flames from his mouth.

Letuli said he was inspired to show that his version of playing with fire was more unique than theirs. Letuli also shared his fire knife dancing expertise and appeared in several Hollywood movies, including "Adventure in Paradise."

He is survived by his wife, nine of his 10 children, 29 grandchildren and 13 great grandchildren.