Dee Lite Bakery founder Sue Matsuba turns 100

Sue Matsuba, who founded the former Dee Lite Bakery with husband Herbert in 1959, celebrated her 100th birthday Tuesday, with dozens of relatives and friends walking or driving by her Waialae Valley home with gifts and flowers.

“The most wonderful thing is to have family around me,” she said of her milestone birthday.

There was singing, dancing, “Happy Birthday” spelled out in puffy balloons, glittery streamers and lots of cheering and honking around the garage, where Matsuba sat in the middle of a special Tongan tapa mat brought by two caregivers. Wearing a gold headband decorated with “100” and bright lei, she clapped and waved to everyone coming by. The finale was a singing of “Aloha ‘Oe,” a favorite she often sings at the end of phone calls with her granddaughters in California.

One of them, Michelle Ma­tsubaWebb, flew in with her family. She said her grandmother woke at midnight as a caregiver sang “Happy Birthday” to her, and she kept laughing and saying, “I’m a century!”

As Matsuba is the lone survivor of 10 siblings, she has a ton of nieces and nephews who would have come for a big party if it weren’t for COVID-19, Ma­tsubaWebb said.

“I know I want a big cake,” was her grandmother’s one big request, she said, but unfortunately it couldn’t be one of the famous chiffon cakes that Dee Lite Bakery will always be remembered for locally. St. Germain Bakery, which acquired Dee Lite in 1990, closed in 2018, and the Matsubas never taught any family or friends their recipes.

The Matsubas opened their first bakery on Mokauea Street, calling it Dee Lite because that was the name of the place when they took it over. By 1964 they were able to expand to a new building on Dillingham Boulevard, which remained the central bakery even after the sale to Saint-Germain.

Dee Lite Bakery’s cakes were made with Hawaii flavors such as guava or passion fruit, and the most popular was the rainbow cake — with both those flavors and a layer of lime. For Matsuba’s birthday her family ordered three separate cakes — in guava, passion fruit and chocolate, spelling out “100” — from Cakeworks bakery.

“In all my memories of growing up in California, we would always get coconut, guava or rainbow cake for our birthdays. Our grandparents would send us a cake with dry ice,” Ma­­tsubaWebb said.

Vickie Hayakawa, a neighbor since 1963, said she remembers how as a little girl she’d be sent by her mother to pick up a haupia cake for special occasions. They were only $4 at the time, and Matsuba would bring one home for them from the bakery. Ma­tsuba was always so appreciative of their business, Hayakawa said, adding, “She looks wonderful.’

MatsubaWebb and sister Stephanie have always been close to their grandparents, through frequent visits with their parents, Howard and Jo-Anne Ma­tsuba. “We’d always come for her birthday; she gets really excited.”

In recent years the sisters have flown over to take care of their grandmother for periods of time — “she’s also a lot of fun to be with,” MatsubaWebb said.

“She is the matriarch of our family. Through her 90s, she’s been so strong physically and mentally, and she’s always talked about shooting for the 100th birthday, that was her goal. … She’s been someone who has always been there for every member of our family. She’s a very important person.”

Her grandmother, she said, attributes her longevity to “eating good food, including dessert; her appreciation of the beauty of the sun, ocean and the world; and living her whole life in Waialae Valley.” Her advice that MatsubaWebb will always remember: “Take life one step at a time. Even if you fall, you can’t fail.”