Hawaii island Realtor was royal descendant

Wattie Mae Hedemann of Keauhou, Hawaii, a descendant of Hawaiian royalty and a well-known Kona Realtor, died Nov. 15 at Kona Community Hospital. She was 84.

Hedemann’s maternal grandmother was the niece of Kings Kamehameha IV and Kamehameha V.

She spent 50 years researching Hawaiian history and said she completed her family genealogy back to A.D. 190, friend Frankie Stapleton said.

"Even at 84 she was sparkling and intelligent," Stapleton said. "She was very humble. She didn’t go around claiming royal privilege, and she was just a delightful person."

Stapleton, a retired schoolteacher and journalist, met Hedemann in July when a mutual friend suggested to Hedemann that Stapleton could help her write a book about her life and Hawaiian history.

Born to Annie and Edward G. Owens of Honolulu, Hedemann grew up poor and took her first job at age 12 walking a neighbor’s child to and from school to pay for lunch money.

During the war years after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, she performed dances with her sister at military camps around Oahu. Stapleton said the girls ate dinner at the officers clubs so they could give away their rations to other islanders.

"It’s really kind of interesting to me that this common thread was in her life that she was always making sure that people could get fed," Stapleton said. "(She was) a true nurturer."

Hedemann had another brush with war when her first-born son, 24-year-old Army helicopter gunner Wayne H. Hedemann, was killed over Cambodia in 1970 after serving only two months in the Vietnam War.

She moved to Kona in 1961 where she entered the real estate business and opened her own business, West Hawaii Realty Inc., in 1965.

Hedemann was a member of the Daughters of Hawaii, the Kona Historical Society, the Kona Christian Women’s Club and many other groups. She was also a founding member and officer of the Hawaii Island Board of Realtors and the Kona Board of Realtors and was one of the first female flight attendants to work for Hawaiian Airlines in the 1950s.

She is survived by sister Harriet Tom of Honolulu; daughter Meta Eckhart of Keauhou; son George Hedemann of Honalo; stepson Edmund Hedemann Jr. of New York City; stepdaughter Jeremy Hedemann Heath of Canterbury, England; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

A service will be held at 10 a.m. Saturday at Christ Church in Kealakekua on Hawaii Island.