First Lady of Hawaii | |
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Incumbent Jaime Green since December 5, 2022 | |
Inaugural holder | Nancy Quinn |
Formation | August 21, 1959 (statehood) |
The first lady or first gentleman of Hawaii is the spouse of the governor of Hawaii, an unpaid ceremonial position. Territorial spouses carved out their roles in varied ways, from traditional wives who raised the children and supported their husbands, to philanthropists and society hostesses. Perhaps the most personal insight into any of the spouses came from territorial governor Sanford B. Dole. Three years after the death of Anna Prentice Cate Dole, he published a small book, "for those who loved and still love Anna—my dear wife" detailing their courtship and marriage, her love of poetry, and the admiration the first governor of the Territory of Hawaii had for his wife. [1]
Nancy Quinn bridged the change of history, as the wife of the last governor of the Territory of Hawaii and first governor of the State of Hawaii. She believed her position was to put family first, being her husband's support in a place and time when Hawaii had not yet worked out financial accommodations for care of the governor's family. [2] Beatrice Burns was a nurse and polio survivor; so far, the only governor's spouse of Hawaii who served her term while in a wheelchair. The agendas of the first spouses have evolved as the country's social history has. Jean Ariyoshi helped reforest Hawaii with "A Million Trees of Aloha." Lynne Waihee put children's literacy first on her agenda. Vicky Cayetano was a business owner before she married Governor Ben Cayetano. Through her business acumen, a trust fund was created to erect a new residence for Hawaii's governor.
Name | Image | Birth–Death | Term | Governor | Notes | Ref(s) |
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Anna Prentice Cate Dole | (1843–1918) | 1900–1903 | Sanford B. Dole | Native of Castine, Maine. President of the Hawaiian Humane Society. Chairman of the 1915 Peace Society. Supported the Temperance League and the Red Cross. Served as First Lady of the Provisional Government of Hawaii (Jan 1893 – July 1894) and the Republic of Hawaii (July 1894 – June 1900). | [1] [3] | |
Helen Strong Carter | (1866–1945) | 1903–1907 | George R. Carter | Native of Rochester, New York. Philanthropist focused primarily on child dental health and welfare. Donated the Strong-Carter Dental Clinic. In 1944, honored by 20,000 students in recognition of her work for Hawaii's children. Donated money for a mobile field kitchen to be used in England's World War II efforts. | [4] | |
Mary Dillingham Frear | (1870–1951) | 1907–1913 | Walter F. Frear | Born in Honolulu, descended from missionaries. Writer, poet, society hostess. Philanthropist, descendant of missionaries, heir to wealthy Dillingham fortune. Bequeathed her mansion to Punahou School. | [5] | |
Vacant | 1913–1918 | Lucius E. Pinkham | Pinkham never married | [6] [7] | ||
Margaret Theresa Morgan McCarthy | (1865–1934) | 1918–1921 | Charles J. McCarthy | Her parents were immigrants to Hawaii from Ireland. Tried to preserve historic artifacts in the Washington Place governor's residence. Prevented Hawaiian squatters from being evicted from the mansion's grounds. While her husband was governor, she opened the Donna Hotel and managed apartment buildings. | [8] [9] | |
Catharine McAlpine Farrington | (1870–1953) | 1921–1929 | Wallace R. Farrington | Born in San Francisco. Philanthropist, society hostess. President of the American Association of University Women. Trained as a teacher, she and Farrington began a shipboard romance en route to Honolulu, marrying a year later. | [10] | |
Florence Bell Hackett Judd | (1885–1974) | 1929–1934 | Lawrence M. Judd | Born in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Hawaii in 1909. Her father was John Bell Hackett, her mother was Florence McKinstry Hackett. | [11] | |
Vacant | 1934–1942 | Joseph Poindexter | Poindexter was a widower. His wife Margaret Conger died in 1918. | [12] | ||
Cecile White Stainback | (1892–1949) | 1942–1951 | Ingram Stainback | Raised in Missouri and Oklahoma. Met her husband on a golf course in Hawaii. When asked if she had political aspirations, she dismissed the idea with, "Keeping a home for my husband is enough." Died in surgery to remove a brain tumor. | [13] | |
Geneva Rule Long | (1893–1985) | 1951–1953 | Oren E. Long | A native of Knox County, Tennessee. Taught at President William McKinley High School | [14] | |
Pauline Nawahineokalai Evans | (1888–1977) | 1953–1957 | Samuel Wilder King | Born in Lahaina, Maui. Vice president of Women's Congressional Club. Her mother Hana K. Evans was a lady in waiting to Liliuokalani. | [15] [16] | |
Nancy Quinn | (1919–2004) | 1957–1959 | William F. Quinn | Raised in St. Louis Missouri. | [2] | |
Name | Image | Birth–Death | Term begins | Term ends | Governor | Notes | Ref(s) |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Nancy Quinn | (1919–2004) | August 21, 1959 | December 3, 1962 | William F. Quinn | [2] | ||
Beatrice Burns | (1906–1988) | December 3, 1962 | December 2, 1974 | John A. Burns | Restored the governor's Washington Place residence | [17] | |
Jean Ariyoshi | (born 1934) | December 2, 1974 | December 1, 1986 | George Ariyoshi | "A Million Trees of Aloha" reforestation program. | [18] | |
Lynne Waihee | (born 1946) | December 1, 1986 | December 5, 1994 | John D. Waihee III | Read To Me Program; children's literacy | [19] | |
Lorraine Cayetano | December 2, 1994 | 1996 | Ben Cayetano | Governor Cayetano and his first wife, Lorraine Cayetano, had separated in 1991, though they remained married during the first two years of his governorship. The marriage ended in divorce in 1996. They remain the only Governor and First Lady of Hawaii to divorce while in office. | [20] | ||
Position vacant | 1996 | May 5, 1997 | Ben Cayetano | Cayetano divorced in 1996. No acting First Lady until his marriage to Vicky Cayetano in 1997. | [20] | ||
Vicky Cayetano | (born 1956) | May 5, 1997 | December 2, 2002 | Ben Cayetano | Vicky Tiu Cayetano married Governor Ben Cayetano on May 5, 1997, to become Hawaii's First Lady. [20] Cayetano, a businesswoman, created the Washington Place Foundation to raise funds to build a new residence for the state's governor. | [21] | |
Position vacant | December 2, 2002 | December 6, 2010 | Linda Lingle | Lingle was divorced prior to the governorship. | [22] | ||
Nancie Caraway | (born 1942) | December 6, 2010 | December 1, 2014 | Neil Abercrombie | Feminist author; human rights | [23] | |
Dawn Ige | (born 1958) | December 1, 2014 | December 5, 2022 | David Ige | [24] | ||
Jaime Green | (born ?) | December 5, 2022 | Present | Josh Green | |||
George Robert Carter was the second Territorial Governor of Hawaii, serving from 1903 to 1907.
Abraham Kahikina Akaka was an American clergyman. For 27 years, Rev. Akaka was Kahu (shepherd) of Kawaiahaʻo Church in Honolulu, Hawaii. His mother was of Hawaiian ancestry, and his father was of Hawaiian and Chinese ancestry. He delivered his messages in both the Hawaiian and English languages.
Akaiko Akana (1884–1933), became the first Kahu (pastor) of Hawaiian ancestry at Kawaiahaʻo Church in 1918. He served in that capacity until his death in 1933.
Lena Machado was a Native Hawaiian singer, composer, and ukulele player, known as "Hawaii's Songbird". She was among the first group of musical artists honored by the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 1995. Noted for her use of the Hawaiian vocal technique of "ha'i," which emphasizes the transition between a singer's lower and falsetto vocal ranges, and her use of "kaona" when writing song lyrics, she entertained primarily in Hawaii and the mainland United States. She sold leis on the Honolulu piers as a child, and aspired to become a singer like the women she saw greeting incoming passengers. KGU radio manager Marion A. Mulroney discovered her as she sang in a mango tree next door to his home. She performed regularly on KGU, where Royal Hawaiian Band conductor Mekia Kealakaʻi heard her and hired her as a featured soloist in 1925. Her association with the Royal Hawaiian Band would last five decades. During World War II, she had her own radio show on KGU.
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Helen Strong Carter (1866–1945) was First Lady of the Territory of Hawaii from 1903 to 1907. Her philanthropic activities included the establishment of the Strong-Carter Dental Clinic at Palama Settlement in Hawaii, and the Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York.
Mary Emma Dillingham Frear was First Lady of the Territory of Hawaii from 1907 to 1913, and was a regent of the University of Hawaii for two decades. The granddaughter of missionaries, she was the first Hawaii-born wife of a governor of Hawaii.
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