Posted on: Saturday, January 31, 2004
1937-2004
Hawai'i Golf Hall of Famer, Nagatoshi
Advertiser Staff
Tura Kahaleanu Nagatoshi, a member of the Hawai'i Golf Hall of Fame, died Tuesday night at her Kailua home after a yearlong battle with cancer. She was 66.
"She was the Michelle Wie of the 1940s and '50s," said Dorothy Johnson, 74, Nagatoshi's cousin and longtime friend. Johnson, Nagatoshi's daughters, Miki and Kimi, and grandson Joey were at her bedside Tuesday.
Nagatoshi took the game up at 6. Her father, Dr. John Kahaleanu, nurtured a career that saw her win many of the major women's tournaments, including three Jennie K. Wilson Invitational championships, the first when she was 18.
"She was a child prodigy. It was unheard of back then for young girls to be that good," said Ron Castillo, 67. "She was a teenage whiz."
But Nagatoshi's golfing successive didn't end after her teen years.
"Even after we were born she still won Jennie K.," said daughter Kimi, 36.
Nagatoshi's final Jennie K. title in 1970 was bittersweet.
While she was playing the final round, Nagatoshi got the news that her father had passed away. Out of respect for him, she finished a round that included a hole-in-one and an eagle. She won by 21 strokes — a record.
Nagatoshi was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1999. During the induction, she thanked her father, all her golfing friends and daughters "who were so understanding about what this game meant to your mother."
On Dec. 24, 2002, two days before her retirement as superintendent at Makalena, she discovered she had cancer, Kimi said.
"What stands out in my mind is her strength as a person, a leader, a friend, and that showed all the way till the end," Kimi said.
"She was concerned about how everyone else was doing. Not herself. Strong till the end."
Kimi said her mother's final words were elicited while watching TV.
"Her very last words were: 'Ah, Super Bowl.' "
Nagatoshi is survived by daughters Miki, 43, Kimi, 36, and grandsons Joey, 14, and Dean, 2. Services will be 1 p.m. on Wednesday at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in Kailua. Attire is casual. Her ashes will be scattered at Lanikai Beach.
