Big Island matriarch’s music touched many

Mary Ann Neula Lim, the matriarch of the musically talented and renowned hula family of North Kohala on Hawaii island, died March 29 at Kohala Hospital. She was 81.

Lim, a singer and Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning recording artist, along with her late husband, Elmer K.S. Lim Sr., was known not only for her musical talent but her generous spirit and heart and her penchant for feeding everyone.

She worked as a cook at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel, where the Lim family for decades also provided entertainment for the property’s luau. She was a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Kohala. At home, she was always cooking, and was remembered affectionately for her Hawaiian sweetbread.

“She was like that,” said kumu hula Nani Lim Yap, her daughter. “When she was cooking, she’d wait for you to taste the food because she worked so hard on it.”

Lim was born March 23, 1936, in her grandparents’ home in Niulii, Kohala, where her father worked at the mill. Her father taught her how to play ukulele from a very young age. She also started dancing hula as a child under the tutelage of Margaret Moku.

She married Elmer, a talented singer and musician, in 1954. Lim’s son, Sonny Lim, is a Na Hoku Hanohano and Grammy Award-winning musician and slack key artist. Yap and her sisters are noted hula dancers who have brought their halau to compete numerous times at the prestigious Merrie Monarch Festival in Hilo.

“She was always there, in the same place, in the same section,” said festival president Luana Kawelu. “You could count on her being there. She loved the hula.”

Her favorite seat was high up on the left side of Edith Kanaka‘ole Stadium, according to Yap, who will be bringing Halau Manaola to the competition this year.

“She loved going to Merrie Monarch,” Yap said. “When she passed, we said, ‘Well, mom, now you’re going to have the best seat in the house.’”

Lim loved the fragrant puakenikeni blossoms and was always stringing them into lei and giving them away to friends, family and even strangers that she eventually befriended. Grandson and fashion designer Carrington Manaola Yap remembers his tutu well into her senior years climbing onto the rooftop of her shed to gather the flowers.

Musician George Kahumoku Jr. has fond memories of playing music at Mauna Kea Beach Hotel with his brother and eating the brunch that Lim helped to prepare as a prep chef. He called her a great falsetto singer.

“She inspired all of us to work hard and sing the music of our elders and kupuna,” Kahumoku said in an email. “She will be missed by all.”

She is survived by son Elmer K.S. Sonny Kohala Lim Jr.; daughters Donna Mae Leialoha Amina, Nanette Nani Lim Yap, Charmaine Lim Davis and Lorna Kapualiko Lim; brother Lawrence Lolena Neula; 13 grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

An all-night celebration of life is planned, with visitation beginning 5 p.m. May 19 at the Lim family residence in Kohala. Visitation is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. May 20 at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Kohala Ward, 55-524 Hawi Road, followed by an 11 a.m. service. The family requests casual, aloha attire and welcomes flowers and lei.