Boogie Kahilihiwa welcomes the crowd to the 2018 annual meeting of Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa at Kalaupapa. (Photo courtesy of Henry G. Law )
Kalaupapa resident of over 60 years taught the importance of ‘giving back’
By Valerie Monson
Special to the Herald
Clarence “Boogie” Kahilihiwa, one of the youngest of the Kalaupapa community who evolved into a strong leader, delivering his powerful words to the State Legislature, the Board of Land and Natural Resources and Iolani Palace, died March 5, a month before his 80th birthday.
“He was always teaching people, constantly teaching people,” said longtime friend Greg Lau, a cameraman for KHON. “He taught you the importance of giving back, of giving of yourself. Not just take, take, take. Not just come up to Kalaupapa to party or fish. He said ‘You got to give back to the community.’”
Boogie was born April 9, 1941, in Kalapana on the Big Island, one of 11 children. His colorful nickname came from a sister when the Kahilihiwa kids were practicing how to wear their gas masks during World War II.
“She said I looked like one boogie man,” recalled Boogie. “She used to scare me with ‘Boogie man! Boogie man!’”
The name stuck. But the carefree days of childhood ended when Boogie was just 9. His parents were told their little boy had been diagnosed with leprosy, later called Hansen’s disease. Boogie would be the fourth child they would have to give up because of the disease. The plane ride from Hilo to Honolulu was fun for Boogie, but when his parents had to leave him at Hale Mohalu in Pearl City, a residential facility for treating people affected by leprosy, a new kind of fear set in.
“It was when my Mom and Dad were leaving, when I couldn’t get back in the car, that it really hit me,” he recalled. “I felt so alone when they left. It was scary.”
Boogie had no choice but to grow up faster than most kids. He participated in activities at Hale Mohalu, but soon began visiting Kalaupapa where a brother, a sister and her husband were living. Another sister had already died. Wanting to be near his family, Boogie decided to leave Hale Mohalu to live in Kalaupapa in 1959 at the age of 18.
For most of the next 60 years, Boogie would remain at Kalaupapa. Even though he could have left when he was found to be negative for the disease, Boogie already felt at home — he also felt a sense of obligation to the kupuna he now loved. Because the last admissions to Kalaupapa were in 1969, Boogie realized that the elders — most of whom had no other home than Kalaupapa — would need some younger voices to advocate for them.
“I just didn’t want to go,” he said during an interview with this writer. “A lot of our people had gotten older and if we (younger ones) don’t stand up for them, the government will step on them. I didn’t want to leave our people.”
Love story
Boogie was married twice, both times in St. Francis Church at Kalaupapa. His first wife, Shirley, died in 1970. Boogie and the wife he leaves behind, Ivy, were married in 1977, last year celebrating their 43rd anniversary, a true Kalaupapa love story. They were seldom apart. Even as Boogie’s health declined, whenever Ivy would enter the room, his eyes lit up as if he was falling in love all over again.
“Boogie was a good husband,” said Kalaupapa resident John Arruda. “I told him that. I said ‘Boogie, you always take good care of your wife.’”
In his younger days, Boogie was the movie projectionist at Paschoal Hall, running the old reel-to-reel machine that needed to be changed with precision.
“We go up the airport, get reels, count cans, check them out, rewind,“ said Boogie. “If only seven reels, short movie. But sometimes 12 reels.”
The projectionist occasionally turned critic.
“This one movie, it was so boring,” said Boogie, shaking his head. “I checked the guys out there and I just cut one reel out. One guy said something, but I said ‘Hey! It’s boring!’”
As time went on, Boogie became more and more of a leader in the community. He was an active member and former president of the Kalaupapa Lions Club. He was a faithful member of St. Francis; he and Ivy traveled to Rome for the canonizations of both Father Damien and Mother Marianne. He worked for the State Department of Health for 40 years — eight years as a plumber’s helper and more than 32 as a painter. When he retired, he became manager of the Kalaupapa Book Store where he became an ambassador of sorts, greeting thousands of visitors with his ever-present smile and ready to autograph books with his elegant signature of flourishes and flair.
Greg Lau first visited Kalaupapa in the mid-1990s with a group of friends. Greg knew little about the history of Kalaupapa — he was just ready to have a good time and catch some fish. For some reason, when he met Boogie, they hit it off. Boogie asked Greg to come back the next year. When Greg returned and his gang pulled out their fishing poles, Boogie pulled him aside and said he had other plans for him.
“And he starts me doing hard labor!” remembered Greg. “He told me to help dig this ditch. Then help him pick up all these mangoes. All day! Then I knew what he was trying to tell me: you guys should come in and do something for the community, not just fish and party. You need to give back.”
Ever since, Greg and his friends have included service projects on their annual trips to Kalaupapa.
“We feel so good after we do that work and Uncle Boogie felt so good, too,” said Greg. “Give of yourself — he always tried to instill that in people.”
In 2003, Boogie joined many others in the community along with other Kalaupapa residents, descendants and friends to form Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa, a nonprofit organization dedicated to remembering each of the nearly 8,000 people sent to Kalaupapa between 1866 and 1969. He was on the first Board of Directors and in 2009, following the death of president Kuulei Bell, Boogie was elected president.
He took his new role seriously.
“We are the voices of the past and that’s so true,” he said shortly after his election. “Although so many have died, their voices live on and their dreams live on.”
Boogie especially wanted to make sure that the voices of Kalaupapa would direct the future of the settlement and that the Kalaupapa Memorial would be built and display all the names of those who had been forcibly isolated there — names often lost to history. He delivered eloquent and emotional testimonies in support of the Memorial — usually off the top of his head — to the State Legislature, the Land Board and the State Land Use Commission.
“When you see all the names on the Memorial, it will be like everyone from Kalawao and Kalaupapa is standing right in front of you,” he said. “It will bring tears to my eyes.”
Boogie was laid to rest by his many friends at Kalaupapa last Thursday. Before burial, he was driven around the settlement, past the home where he and Ivy lived, past the Kalaupapa Bookstore, past the house of Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa, and, finally, past the graves of his family.
His voice and dreams will live on.
Valerie Monson is a long-time journalist and former executive director of Ka ‘Ohana O Kalaupapa.
