In last days, Tapia shared stew and rice with friends

By Ben Wood

POSTED: 01:30 a.m. HST, Dec 09, 2011

~~<p>THE LAST TIME I saw <a span="" style="color: #0000FF;" target="_blank" href="http://bit.ly/tizWcj">Bill Tapia</a> perform was in August of last year at the Halekulani’s House Without a Key when Puamana was the guest group. Hawaii-born Bill, who had a remarkable career playing ukulele and guitar and singing, died last Friday at his home in Westminster, Calif. He would have turned 104 on Jan. 1. Mihana Souza of Puamana was Bill’s dear friend and he often called her to come to the mainland and perform with him. He may have realized his time was finally running out, and he called Mihana to fly up to visit him last month.</p>
<p>“I stayed with him and his caretaker friends, Pat and Nancy Enos, for a week,” Mihana said over lunch at Murphy’s Monday. “He got dressed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He had 12 people come for dinner for three days to eat stew and rice that I had cooked. He was very talkative. He talked about bands and musicians of the 1930s and ’40s, including my uncle Carl Farden. He said Chinatown was loaded with clubs and everyone came out and danced. He added that after work on Saturday nights the musicians would get into a caravan of convertibles and cars with rumble seats and play music as they drove through the Diamond Head area on the way to Sandy Beach.” They had a good time there enjoying themselves playing music and singing. Mihana said a celebration of his life will be held in California this month and burial will be here in February … Sorry to learn of longtime singer Bill Kaiwa’s death Nov. 29. Mihana sang for him at a hospice on Nov. 27 and 28, the two days before he died…</p>
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THE LAST TIME I saw Bill Tapia perform was in August of last year at the Halekulani’s House Without a Key when Puamana was the guest group. Hawaii-born Bill, who had a remarkable career playing ukulele and guitar and singing, died last Friday at his home in Westminster, Calif. He would have turned 104 on Jan. 1. Mihana Souza of Puamana was Bill’s dear friend and he often called her to come to the mainland and perform with him. He may have realized his time was finally running out, and he called Mihana to fly up to visit him last month.

“I stayed with him and his caretaker friends, Pat and Nancy Enos, for a week,” Mihana said over lunch at Murphy’s Monday. “He got dressed for breakfast, lunch and dinner. He had 12 people come for dinner for three days to eat stew and rice that I had cooked. He was very talkative. He talked about bands and musicians of the 1930s and ’40s, including my uncle Carl Farden. He said Chinatown was loaded with clubs and everyone came out and danced. He added that after work on Saturday nights the musicians would get into a caravan of convertibles and cars with rumble seats and play music as they drove through the Diamond Head area on the way to Sandy Beach.” They had a good time there enjoying themselves playing music and singing. Mihana said a celebration of his life will be held in California this month and burial will be here in February … Sorry to learn of longtime singer Bill Kaiwa’s death Nov. 29. Mihana sang for him at a hospice on Nov. 27 and 28, the two days before he died… Login for more...