Abraham 'Purple' Kahui embodied aloha
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
Hawai'i lost a piece of aloha last week. Another former beach boy has died.
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Abraham "Purple" Kahui, 74, was born on Ni'ihau and raised on Kaua'i, said his widow, Max Kohn Kahui. The couple was married in 1985 and lived in Punalu'u.
Abraham "Purple" Kahui was known for spreading aloha spirit.
Kahui died March 4 at Castle Medical Center of complications from surgery for lung cancer.
Kahui was a Waikiki beach boy in the late 1940s and '50s, Max Kohn Kahui said. He also was a retired mason.
Kahui was at home in the ocean and was among the regulars who swam near arriving ocean liners in Honolulu Harbor and dove for coins that the tourists would throw, she said.
He was a champion canoe paddler and bodysurfer who got his nickname in the 1940s from a tourist, she said.
"Some girl said, 'You're so dark, you must be purple,' " she said. "And it stuck."
Kahui said her husband's epitaph should say he never met a stranger.
"He loved people," she said. "He would go up in an elevator and meet people. Some of them are still his best friends."
One of them was Canadian resident Jacqueline Wilson. She and her late husband, Don, met Kahui on the beach in 1963 during their first trip to Hawai'i.
The Wilsons were standing on the beach as a pair of beach boys named Happy and Papa Dave sang and strummed their ukulele. All of a sudden, Kahui had his arms around the couple's shoulders boasting he could out sing the other men, which he did. They had been friends ever since.
They drank beer every afternoon at 4 p.m. They closed down the Barefoot Bar some nights. Kahui taught the Wilson children to surf and once, when he arrived for a three-day visit in Canada, he stayed for three years.
"His heart was just as pure as could be," Jacqueline Wilson said. "He enjoyed everything."
Except getting dressed up.
"He would wear only shorts and most of the time, he would hardly wear a shirt," said Lynn Burns, one of Kahui's sisters. "He was a very simple guy, a simple man."
Max Kohn Kahui met the beach boy in 1960 shortly after arriving in Hawai'i. They even talked of marriage, but that didn't happen until 25 years later.
They traveled a lot, she said. Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean. In London, they went to see "Les Miserables."
"He couldn't stand it because he had to wear a jacket," she said. "He went into the lobby where they had a pub, and they had it on television there. He liked it then because he could take his jacket off and drink beer."
Memorial services will be held at 1:30 p.m. Saturday at St. Joachim's Catholic Church. Aloha attire. Lei welcome.
Some of Kahui's ashes will be scattered offshore after the Saturday service. On Sunday, more ashes will be scattered off Waikiki, and on Monday, the remaining ashes will be scattered on Kaua'i, his wife said.
In addition to his wife, Kahui is survived by sisters Lynn Burns, Lydia Amona and Carole Kahui; stepsons Danny and Stanley Palama; stepdaughters Charlotte Palama, Linda Fountain, Angie Palama, Brenda Barausse and Sandra Dante.
Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.
Correction: The ashes of beach boy Abraham "Purple" Kahui will be scattered on Kaua'i on Monday. The date was incorrect in a previous version of this story.
