Ask most lovers of Hawaiian music for "Aunty" Genoa Keawe's trademark, and they'll likely point to the song "Alika," whether by name or merely by calling it "that song with the long, high note in it."

In addition to being her signature, perhaps this song is also emblematic of Keawe, who died Monday at 89. Like that climactic verse in "Alika," Keawe remained a strong, clear, persistent presence within the entertainment community, right until the very end.

Music was her life, from the moment she joined the choir at her Mormon church. As a young wife and mother, she balanced a schedule of performing in clubs while raising her family of 12 children.

Famous for her ethereal falsetto, her renown grew with the launch of her recording career, first on the 49th State label (founded when Hawai'i was predicted to achieve statehood ahead of Alaska); through her own company, Genoa Keawe Records; and with Hula Records.

Her popularity spread beyond the Islands in the 1960s, when she took her unmistakeable vocal styling to Japan, where she has performed many times.

Keawe remained true to the traditional Hawaiian singing and through her prodigious recording career helped to perpetuate many songs for the hula repertoire. Aunty Genoa herself ran a hula studio in Pauoa for many years and supported other halau hula throughout the Islands.

Perhaps her greatest mentoring success lay in her training of her own granddaughter, Pomaika'i Keawe Lyman, whose own clear soprano echoes Aunty Genoa's style.

In that achievement, and in the repository of recordings the artist left behind, Hawai'i can rest assured. The gifts of a beloved master of Hawaiian music surely will resonate — like that long, high note — for many years to come.