Posted on: Friday, December 10, 2004
Waikiki beachboy James 'Jammer' Keanu, dead at 81
By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer
The shrinking fraternity of Waikiki beachboys lost another longtime member this week. James "Jammer" Keanu, an avid surfer and Kuhio Beach fixture for decades, died Sunday. He was 81.
Friends called him Jammer because he was a hard-charging guy and the beach disciplinarian. If someone didn't behave, Keanu would "jam" him up. In later years, friends shortened it to "Jama."
He was an Army veteran who served in World War II and the Korean War before retiring in 1971. After that, he was an Island Holidays tour escort for many years.
Keanu was born Oct. 16, 1923, in Honolulu. He lived in Kalihi as a young child but by the time he was 10, his parents had died and he and his brothers went to live with an aunt and uncle in Kapahulu, not far from the beach.
"He was always sociable, nice to people, never got angry," said his 79-year-old friend, Raymond "Atuk" Chang.
Chang met him in 1940 and they had been friends ever since. They hung out with other ocean-loving youths, including Keanu's older brother, famed surfer Rabbit Kekai.
All of them were avid surfers, but Chang remembers how Keanu would paddle a mile or more offshore to Steamer Lane where huge waves sometimes broke.
"He was a very good surfer," Chang said.
They lived at the beach "seven days a week," he said.
"We'd sleep down at the beach like the homeless," Chang said. "We'd sleep right on Kuhio Beach by the lifeguard stand."
Keanu joined the Army in World War II and his military career took him away from Hawai'i from 1957 to 1971, said Jojo Keanu, his wife of 49 years. He turned down Mainland job offers when he retired, she said.
"He said, 'I gotta get back to my sand and water,' " Jojo Keanu said.
For much of his life after that, he was an avid surfer. As a tour escort, he often traveled to the Neighbor Islands and stashed surfboards everywhere to catch whatever swell might be breaking, his wife said.
As often as possible, Keanu and the other beachboys would head to Kuhio Beach to hang out and do what beachboys do best: surf and teach surfing by day and sing and party by night.
But that changed when Keanu suffered a stroke in 1996. Although he recovered from early stroke-related paralysis, his surfing days were over, Jojo Keanu said.
Keanu is survived by his wife, Josephine "Jojo" Keanu; sons, Jammer T. "Squeaky" Keanu and James M. "Boomer" Keanu; daughters, Tehanei Ferreira and Pinky Keanu; and brothers, Rabbit Kekai, Hank Kekai and Martin Kaninau.
Keanu will return to the ocean one last time. His ashes will be scattered offshore of the Moana Surfrider Hotel on Dec. 19. Services begin at 8:30 a.m. at the Honolulu Elks Lodge 616. Military honors will be given at 9 a.m. Bus transportation will take mourners to the beach for Keanu's final journey.
