Mary G. Pinho, 97, was active Hana resident
By MELISSA TANJI, Staff Writer'Article Photos
“She was a very nice woman, loving and caring,” said retired longtime Hotel Hana-Maui employee Mary R. Estrella. “She was a blessed person.
“They were well-liked by everyone here in Hana,” Estrella said of Pinho’s family members who had moved from the rural town years ago.
Pinho died April 1 at Wilcox Memorial Hospital on Kauai, where she stayed with her daughter, former Kauai County Mayor Maryanne Kusaka, after suffering a first stroke in 1993. An obituary was published on Page A4 Friday. A prayer service was held last month on Kauai. She was 97.
Maui services will be held at 2 p.m. May 21 at St. Peter’s Catholic Church in Puuiki, Hana.
Estrella remembered Pinho religiously bringing unique flowers to the hotel and arranging them beautifully. She said Pinho went to places she knew such as old sugar cane fields to gather the flowers.
Pinho was also remembered for her recollection of historic events and old stories of Hana, as a longtime volunteer at the Hana Cultural Center, said Coila Eade, the center’s former executive director.
“She was very good at telling (visitors) the history of Hana. She knew all the articles that were around the museum, what they were for. She was very good at taking them around,” Eade recalled.
Through the years, Pinho made many friends as a chief operator for Hawaiian Telephone Co. at the Kula and Hana exchanges — in the days before all the switching was automated. She was also a ticket agent for Hawaiian Airlines and an assistant chief cook for Hotel Hana- Maui.
During World War II, she volunteered as a leader of the Red Cross Recovery Team in Hana. She later was a substitute teacher at Hana School and served on the Maui County Board of Water Supply.
In the early ’50s, she owned and operated Kauakea Kottages in Wakiu.
Eade remembered dinners and get-togethers at the rental cottages.
“She would invite my husband and I for dinner so we could meet with the visitors. . . . She was a wonderful cook,” Eade said. Pinho would make hekka and soup and “cooked a lot of fish,” Eade said.
Eade recalls her friend as being “very pleasant, always smiling and generous.”
Pinho also was an avid churchgoer and was a member of the Na Leo O Hana Choral Group.
She is survived by two daughters, Maryanne (Charles) Kusaka and Kehaulani (Robert) Quartero; two sons, Kirtley (Minna) Pinho and Glenn Pinho; a brother, Gordon Cockett; a sister, Winona Amorin; and 16 grandchildren, 38 great-grandchildren and one great-great grandchild.
• Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.
