As a young woman in the 1950s, Irene Matsuo was a devoted viewer of the local variety show "Televi Digest."
She enjoyed the interviews with local celebrities like Martin Denny and Arthur Lyman and national figures like Art Linkletter and Dick Gregory. She liked the amateur talent competitions that served as the springboard for up-and-coming entertainers like Danny Kaleikini.
Most of all, she enjoyed watching the show’s charming and elegant host, Barbara Kim, who went by the name Barbara Lee.
"I just admired the way she carried herself," Matsuo recalls. "I thought that one day I would like to meet her."
Some five decades would pass before Matsuo got her wish, in Las Vegas of all places. By then both women had experienced a full concert of joys and sorrows. By then both were in need of a special friend.
On the surface, Kim, an outstanding student at the University of Hawaii and a former Korean beauty queen, seemed to live a charmed life. Only close friends and loved ones knew how she had struggled to earn her degree while serving as primary caretaker for her widowed mother, who had suffered a devastating stroke at age 48.
Kim hosted "Televi Digest" until its finale in 1965. She would go on to earn a Master of Arts degree in educational administration from Stanford — magna cum laude, of course — and worked for many years as a Department of Education administrator.
Matsuo lived most of her life out of the spotlight. Born and raised in Liliha and educated at McKinley High School, Matsuo worked as a receptionist until she retired to help take care of her parents.
Matsuo’s husband, Harry, a land surveyor, had always dreamed of retiring to Las Vegas. He died of cancer before he could realize that dream, so Matsuo decided to realize it for him.
Unbeknownst to Matsuo, Kim had moved to Las Vegas with her husband, Hiroshi Yamashita, in 1992.
The two eventually met through mutual friends shortly after Kim’s husband died.
"We were both widows," Matsuo says, "and we both needed a friend."
Matsuo and Kim bonded almost immediately over a shared love of Korean dramas and hotel buffets.
"She took me under her wing and taught me a lot about life, and I tried to help her by taking her to her appointments," Matsuo says.
Three years ago Kim decided to return to Hawaii and asked Matsuo to come with her.
Shortly after returning to Hawaii, Kim fell sick and was later diagnosed with an aggressive form of non-Hodgkins lymphoma. The cancer eventually spread to Kim’s brain, and she was placed in hospice.
Matsuo stayed by her friend’s side through the entire ordeal, aided at the end by Kim’s cousin and some of Kim’s former Leilehua students.
Kim died Sept. 30.
"I was so happy that she accepted me as a friend," Matsuo says. "She trusted me, and I tried to do whatever I could for her. She was one of a kind, and I miss her."
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Reach Michael Tsai at mtsai@staradvertiser.com.
