Select an option below to continue reading this premium story.
Already a Honolulu Star-Advertiser subscriber? Log in now to continue reading.
Josephine Regala DeLuz, who served on the Hawaii County Council for a decade, died Oct. 19 in Waimea on Hawaii island. She was 87.
Born in Kilauea, Kauai, she was thrust into public service — and the public limelight — when her first husband, Elias P. “Epy” Yadao, died while a member of the Council in 1966 and she was appointed to replace him. The widow of four young children, then-Josephine Yadao finished out her husband’s term and then was re-elected in her own right.
She was a music major at the University of Hawaii at Manoa where she met Elias Yadao. After they married, she left school to join her husband in Washington, D.C., where he attended George Washington University Law School.
In 1976, after leaving the Council, she went back to school at the University of Hawaii at Hilo and received her bachelor’s degree in business.
In 1982 she married David DeLuz Sr., a businessman and rancher.
Besides her husband, DeLuz is survived by sons Emil and Elias Jr., daughters Barbara Yadao-Petti and Elisa Yadao Jones, six grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.
Services will be held Thursday at Dodo Mortuary in Hilo. Visitation will begin at 2 p.m. The service starts at 4 p.m. Casual attire. No flowers. Burial is to take place at a later date on Kauai.