Msgr. Gary Secor prepared to consecrate the bread and wine April 26 during the funeral Mass for beloved local journalist and storyteller Emme Tomimbang Burns, who died in February at age 73. (Celia K. Downes / Hawaii Catholic Herald)
By Celia K. Downes
Hawaii Catholic Herald
Emme Tomimbang Burns, an icon of journalism and storytelling in Hawaii who died earlier this year, was remembered April 26 at the Cathedral Basilica of Our Lady of Peace in downtown Honolulu during a funeral Mass that saw family, friends and faithful gather to honor a lifetime spent preserving and celebrating the isles’ culture.
People began filing in hours before Mass started to pay their respects to Tomimbang Burns’ family. Dr. Jerris R. Hedges, dean emeritus of the University of Hawaii John A. Burns School of Medicine, also shared his memories of Tomimbang Burns and her husband, the late Intermediate Court of Appeals Chief Judge James S. Burns, before the noon service.
Hedges, a professor in the departments of surgery and medicine, commented on Tomimbang Burns’ “ability to reach out to all across this state” and noted her support of institutions like the cathedral; her alma mater, Farrington High School; JABSOM; the Filipino Community Center and others.
(James S. Burns, who died in 2017, was the son of Hawaii Gov. John A. Burns, for whom the UH medical school is named.)
Msgr. Gary Secor celebrated Mass with Msgr. Terrence Watanabe, pastor of St. Anthony Church of Wailuku, who gave the homily.
Msgr. Watanabe, who has known Tomimbang Burns and her family for “many, many years,” spoke about Tomimbang Burns’ dedication to making Hawaii a better place.
As creator and host of the popular “Emme’s Island Moments” television show, in which she profiled people who’ve had an impact on local culture, Tomimbang Burns “(helped) us understand the richness of our culture, the richness of our place, the richness of the host culture of Hawaii, the richness of being a people so diverse yet living together in this aloha state … living aloha and making it a reality,” Msgr. Watanabe said.
Tomimbang Burns “made sure that she was always there to help others and to help them to truly achieve this beautiful sense of who we are as a people of God and as people of Hawaii and what that really meant,” he said.
“She always made you feel at home … Whenever you were in her presence she always had a wonderful sense of the spirit of Hawaii (and that) wonderful sense of love and that wonderful sense of hospitality.”
Not long before she died, Msgr. Watanabe said she had reached out to him to see how she could help the Lahaina community, which continues to recover after last year’s deadly wildfire. She asked how she could visit west Maui and do some filming in Maria Lanakila Church, which was miraculously unharmed, so she could “speak about how to help rebuild wonderful Lahaina town and its people.”
“She had a great love for these islands, for its people,” Msgr. Watanabe said.
After Mass, Tomimbang Burns was interred at the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, next to her husband.
