LAHAINA » The sweet lyrics of Edna Pualani Farden Bekeart’s songs filled a humble, open-air church in Lahaina on Friday evening. As the sun began to set on West Maui, churchgoers seemed more like concertgoers, humming to songs written by one of the most esteemed music composers of old Hawaii.

Scores attended the Maui service at Holy Innocents Church to pay tribute to "Aunty Edna," a musician, educator and historian. Bekeart, a Lahaina native, died June 17 in Kaneohe. She was 95.

"Maunalua Bay," "Christmas Love" and "Ginger Memories," some of Bekeart’s best-loved works, were played by the band Pa‘ahana; cousin Puamana Farden danced hula to "Puamana," a 1937 piece composed and written by the Farden family about their home.

For the Fardens, music stretched as far back as memories. Thirteen siblings, raised by parents Charles Kekua and Annie Kahalepouli Shaw Farden, grew up dancing, singing and playing music.

Each Sunday, dressed in their Sunday best, the family walked from their Puamana sugar plantation house to Holy Innocents, a meeting place for generations of relatives.

It was a significant return, then, for the remembrance of the last surviving Farden sibling.

"This marks the end of the Farden generation," said Bekeart’s second son, Dana Bekeart. "That era and those people existed before the H-1 freeway, before statehood. They were so full of life. … Today was the close of that story."

Longtime friend and Grammy award-winning slack-key artist George Kahumoku Jr. hailed Bekeart, an "old-school spirit," for bridging the gap among past, present and future.

"She was steeped in tradition, but she was always open to new ideas," Kahumoku said.

Recognized as an accomplished Hawaiian music composer, Bekeart in 2008 received the Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award. Her 1960s children’s song, "Sassy Little Mynah Bird," co-composed by sister Irmgard Farden Aluli, became a hit; it’s performed by schoolchildren to this day.

Bekeart also sang with the 1950s family group the Farden Sisters. The quintet had nine recordings, including "Laupahoehoe."

Although she is best known for music, family on Friday said Bekeart’s strongest passions were history and education.

In 1936, Bekeart became the first female graduate of Lahainaluna High School, a former all-male boarding school. In 1941, Bekeart received her bachelor’s degree in education from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, where she met Robert Francis Bekeart, a California native and Navy officer who served with distinction in World War II. They married in 1941 at Holy Innocents.

She taught at Royal, Kamehameha and Holy Nativity schools. Bekeart also was a member of the National League of American Pen Women, the Delta Gamma teaching sorority, the Honolulu chapter of Hale o Na Ali‘i, the Daughters of Hawai‘i, the Prince Kuhio Hawaiian Civic Club and the Maunalua Civic groups.

Artists such as Amy Hanaiali‘i and Loyal Garner recorded Bekeart’s music. Countless others benefited from her knowledge, as she taught ukulele and hula to summer students at UH-Manoa and music composition to children from around the world during various workshops.

Bekeart loved Hawaiian history and would point out landmarks around Maui, Oahu and Hawaii island where she resided at different times, according to her oldest son, Bastel Francois Bekeart.

Her dream was to "mark and tie together a trail that circumnavigated Maui," he said, which would "identify and honor" Piilani, a Maui chief who united West and East Maui in the 1500s.

Amid Bekeart’s lifetime accomplishments, her deepest joy was rooted in relationships, echoed family and friends.

"She shared every day her wisdom, her mana‘o," daughter Marquita Denison said. "She transferred her values to every generation."

An Oahu service will be held for Bekeart at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Holy Nativity Church in Aina Haina. Her cremated remains will be buried next to her husband’s at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific at Punchbowl.

In addition to her three children, she is survived by four grandchildren.