Don Ho

The icon of breezy island entertainment, Don Ho became synonymous with Hawaii and all it represented...colorful leis and shirts, festive luaus, strumming ukuleles, flowing palm trees, beautiful hula dancers, and, of course, the song "Tiny Bubbles". A trip to the "Aloha State" seemed incomplete unless capped by a Don Ho performance, a tourist attraction unto itself. He delighted thousands upon thousands for nearly five decades and was dubbed that island's "goodwill ambassador". Born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaako on August 13, 1930, he was one of nine children blessed with a mixed ethnic heritage that encompassed the Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch and German cultures. He was a high school football star by the time he left the state to study at Springfield College in Massachusetts. Chronic homesickness had him returning to his beloved island by year's end. Attending the University of Hawaii in 1954, he earned a BA in sociology, then served with the Air Force as a fi