Honolulu County HI Archives Obituaries.....Kahea, Fred Malulani Beckley January 19, 1949
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J. Orr jessicanorr@gmail.com February 16, 2012, 3:22 pm

Unknown newspaper, Friday, January 21, 1949
FRED KAHEA, EXPERT ON OLD HAWAII, DIES.

  Fred Malulani Beckley Kahea, 66, retired custodian of the Royal Mausoleum, 
and one of the few remaining links with the music and handicrafts of old 
Hawaii, died shortly before midnight Wednesday in Lunalilo Home where he had 
been living since his retirement on Aug. 4, 1947. The body will be at 
Borthwick’s mortuary from 6 to 9 tonight and after 7:30 a.m. Saturday. High 
mass will be said in the Cathedral of Our Lady of Peace, Fort St., at 9 
Saturday morning, followed by burial in Makiki cemetery. He was a member of 
the Order of Kamehameha and Daughters and Sons of Hawaiian Warriors. Kahea is 
survived by a sister, Mrs. Carl A. G. (Violet K. Beckley) Maertens; a brother, 
Benjamin P. K. Beckley, and several nieces and nephews. 
  He was born in Honolulu Jan. 23, 1882, the son of David K. and Maria K. 
(Beckley) Kahea. He attended old St. Louis from 1888 to 1892 and the old Royal 
School from 1893 to 1897. From 1902 to 1925 he played the flute and was a 
sergeant in the Royal Hawaiian Band. His position as caretaker and custodian 
of the Royal Mausoleum from August, 1915, to his retirement in 1947 was a 
family heritage and trust which he cherished as had his parents before him.
  His mother had first been appointed to the position by King Kalakaua and 
Queen Kapiolani and carried on through the reign of Liliuokalani and for a 
number of years thereafter. Upon his wife’s death, David K. Kahea had taken 
over the responsibility for the resting place of the alii, and transferred the 
honor to his son several years before his death in 1921. Kahea’s mother was a 
high chiefess, daughter of Kahinu and William Beckely, and granddaughter of 
Hooulu. Proud of his Hawaiian lineage, Kahea was equally proud of his English 
ancestor, Capt. George Beckley, who in the days of Kamehameha I was commander 
of the fort from which Fort St. takes its name.
  Kahea’s knowledge and interest in the arts of his people were authentic and 
extensive. He was an expert in feather work and had been spending much time on 
this since his retirement. He was a mender of calabashes and one of the few 
survivors of his race who was adept at blowing the conch shell and the nose 
flute. For some time in the early 1920s he taught ancient Hawaiian arts at the 
National Guard armory. He had a sense of the dramatic and colorful in his 
Hawaiian background and was much in demand to portray the part of a high 
priest in pageants and plays which he accompanied with chanting and drums as 
wells as nose flute and conch shell.
  In 1946 he was one of the performers who traveled East to appear in the 
pageant, The Birth of Kamehameha, presented in Washington on June 11 in honor 
of Kamehameha Day. A much earlier appearance in Washington was that before 
Queen Liliuokalani while she was in the capital shortly after Hawaii’s 
annexation, and one of his cherished memories was of the deposed Queen 
thanking him with tears in her eyes.


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