Ashes are given to the ocean as Borges has a final sendoff

Several dozen family members, longtime friends and fans gathered Sunday for a final aloha to Jimmy Borges, scattering the jazz singer’s ashes in the turquoise waters off Waikiki Beach.

In a solemn ceremony held outside the Royal Hawaiian Hotel, Army personnel presented Borges’ family with a folded American flag, and Hawaiian cultural practitioners, wearing traditional kihei sashes, blew conch shells to honor the Kalihi native, who died of cancer May 30.

The group then processed onto the sand, and about a dozen friends and family, including Borges’ wife, Vicki, got into two outrigger canoes and paddled out past the shorebreak as prominent Hawaiian singer and “ambassador of aloha” Danny Kaleikini led those on shore in a rendition of “Aloha ‘Oe.”

Those in the canoes then released Borges’ ashes into the water from a container made from ti leaves.

“We took brother back home and we did it Hawaiian style,” Kaleikini said of Borges afterward. “He’s a Hawaiian. He’s a kanaka maoli and we love him dearly. Because of him, you know, people got to know Hawaii, because of what he shared. Nobody could touch Jimmy with jazz.”

Borges’ heralded career in the music industry spanned 60 years. The singer performed in prominent destinations such as San Francisco, Las Vegas and New York as well as Hawaii.

He also served in the Army in the early 1950s, according to a family spokesman — which accounted for the flag ceremony moments before Sunday’s ash-scattering at sea. Days before his death, Borges won four awards at the Na Hoku Hanohano Awards for his swan-song album, “Jimmy Borges.”

“I followed his music over the years and really, really enjoyed it,” said Ala Moana resident Ruth Falter, who said she’s lived in the islands since the 1970s and wanted to attend Sunday and pay tribute. “I think he’s just as memorable as Don Ho was. He’s fantastic. I suppose he’s been compared to Frank Sinatra — the nice, mellow sound.”

“I’m glad the weather turned out so nicely — I heard it was going to be pouring rain today,” Falter added. “They were really fortunate it turned out to be like this.”

Sunday’s memorial event followed Borges’ funeral Mass on Saturday, which was held downtown at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace.