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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, February 29, 2008

Aunty Genoa in her heart

Photo galleryPhoto gallery: Aunty Genoa's spirit lives on
 •  Aunty Genoa Keawe tribute

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Pomaika'i Lyman sang with a heavy heart last night at the Waikiki Beach Marriott. Her grandmother Aunty Genoa Keawe died Monday.

REBECCA BREYER | The Honolulu Advertiser

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Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

Aunty Genoa Keawe

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Pomaika'i Keawe Lyman took to the open-air stage at the Moana Terrace Bar and Grill in the Waikiki Beach Marriott Resort last night, continuing the musical legacy of her beloved grandmother, Aunty Genoa Keawe, who died Monday at age 89.

Before the show Lyman, 26, conceded that following in the footsteps of a legend could be daunting, especially when it's less than a week after losing the loved one who provided the inspiration.

"I tried to sing yesterday, and I noticed I was choking up a little," Lyman, a mother of three, said before moving into the spotlight that her grandmother had occupied for so many years.

"It can be overwhelming — living up to her standard. She set the standard high," Lyman said. "And at the same time you're living up to that standard, you're trying to discover who you are, and what sets you apart as an individual."

Still, the woman who began performing with Aunty Genoa a decade ago when she was a Punahou School teenager who friends knew as Mandy realized even then it was her destiny.

In a 1998 interview, Lyman said, "I would like to carry on that tradition," as her grandmother looked on smiling proudly.

"It seems natural," Aunty Genoa said at the time, then advising her granddaughter that all would go well as long as she never forgot to sing from the heart. "When you sing out from the heart, you make the audience feel the music."

Lyman was all smiles and composure last night as she sang and played the 'ukulele. Backing her up, as they had her grandmother every Thursday for years, were bass player Gary Keawe Aiko, Aunty Genoa's oldest of 12 children; her niece, Momi Bee Kahawaiola'a on guitar; and Alan Akaka, steel guitar player and emcee.

The capacity crowd of 250-plus, with more more than a dozen tables squeezed in around the bar and swimming pool areas, was definitely feeling the music. There was an eruption of cheers when Akaka said, "Tonight we are going to be celebrating Aunty Genoa."

Throughout the evening there was much laughter and dancing, a few tears and plenty of memories about Aunty Genoa.

"She used to play for us when we danced the hula at the old Army and Navy Y at Hotel and Richards," recalled Winifred Naihe, 75, of Waimanalo. "And that was back in the 1950s."

Naihe said she and several friends visited with Aunty Genoa the previous Thursday when Keawe dropped by to watch her granddaughter and the group perform at the Moana Terrace.

"She came straight from the hospital, so we were able to see her and bid her goodbye," Naihe said. "She was a lovely woman and we all loved her very much."

Regulars Marian and Gary Rafn of Racine, Wis., were there that night, too — as they have been for six straight weeks at the same front-row table.

"She must have known it was near the end and said, 'I want to go for one last time,' " Gary Rafn said last night. "She did not sing, but everyone went up to speak to her and she responded. She was just the sweetest woman I've ever known."

When Lyman was a baby, Aunty Genoa had given her a full Hawaiian name — Pomai-ka'imaliekekuinialohaokalani.

"It means blessed and calm is the queen of love from heaven," Lyman said, adding that everything she knows about entertaining and Hawaiian music she learned from her grandmother.

Aunty Genoa was renowned for her signature falsetto and her breathtaking ability to sustain a single high note in the song "Alika" for so long it would leave whole audiences panting for air.

"Nope, I can't do it nearly as long as her, or nearly as clean as her," Lyman said with a laugh. "She's the only one who can do it. I can go 15 or 20 seconds, where she could go for a minute — or two! During live performnances, she could really hold it a long time. Put it this way, the band would run out of breath before she would finish."

Aunty Genoa, the eternally upbeat performer, had suffered from a multitude of ills in the final years of her life. Yet even then she had somehow remained sunny, even singing to her hospital nurses, spreading joy, and always focused on the things she affectionately referred to as "the spice of life" — music.

It was what she lived for, said Lyman. The consummate Hawaiian performer would be pleased to know that the show will go on without her, she said.

"It may be somewhat difficult, but she'll be right there with us in spirit," she said. "And as long as they'll continue to have us, we'll be happy to do it — same time, same people, same place."

Reach Will Hoover at whoover@honoluluadvertiser.com.