Genoa Keawe

Born: October 31, 1918
Died: February 25, 2008
Musician with immense repertoire of Hawaiian and hapa-haole (lyrics in English but with Hawaiian themes and or settings) who performed for almost 70 years and recorded widely from the 1940's through into the 1990's. 1980: Winner of a Sidney Grayson Award which was the name of what from 1987 became the Nā Hōkū Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award under the auspices of the Hawaiʻi Academy of Recording Arts. 2000: recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts. 2005: received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from the University of Hawaii. Achieved her fluency in Hawaiian from her mother-in-law, who grew up in a family in which Hawaiian was the spoken language.