Notes for Pearl Lydia MCCARTHY

Descendants of
Captain Robert Brown
1809 – 1894

Notes for Pearl Lydia MCCARTHY

Most likely early in the year.
Notes for Pearl Lydia McCarthy:
Daughter of Govenor C. J. McCarthy.
Teacher at Maui High School.

Obituary-- Honolulu Advertiser May 9, 1938 pg 1 col 4

"Services today for Mrs. Burns.

Funeral services for Mrs. Pearl McCarthy Burns, daughter of a former govenor of Hawaii, will be held at 10 a.m. at St. Augustine's Waikiki. Sevices will be private.

Mrs. Burns died Saturday night after a long illness. Her husband Frank Burns, former city-county employee, died in February.
She is survived by four children: Margaret, Jean, Bruce and Frank; three sisters Mrs. O. W. Lightfoot, Mrs G. N. Rothwell, Mrs. O. B. Stevens and Miss Aileen McCarthy. Burial will take place in Diamond Head Cemetery."

More About Pearl Lydia McCarthy:
Burial: Diamond Head Cemetary, Honolulu, Hawaii
Nationality: Irish
Occupation: Teacher
Religion: Catholic

This is how I remember my mother and her stories. Source FWB 3rd

She was born at the time that the Queen Liliuokalani was being overthrown by the revolutionary party (no caps because Liliuokalani didn't capitalize it in her book "Hawaii's Story by Hawaii's Queen"). The revolutionary party was made up of hoales who desired to have Hawaii taken over by the US. They were mainly decendents of missionaries. They also got help from the US Minister Plenipotentiary, John L. Stevens, who ordered the US navy to land and march to the Palace grounds. Since her father was part of the Queen's government and very loyal to her, the family had to flee Honolulu to be safe. They went to Pearl City where she was born. She was named Pearl Lydia. Pearl was for the city. Lydia Kamakaeha was the queen's birth name. The queen took Liliuokalani as her royal name. So it is reasonable the conclude that Lydia was for the Queen. I think when she was born she was a citizen of the Kingdom of Hawaii (the take-over wasn't complete since the queen gave up her power under protest and the US refused to accept Hawaii ), then the Provisional Government of Hawaii, then the Republic of Hawaii, then the United States. That is the progression as communicated by her sister, Mary Louise. It is possibly that she (& her sisters) was also a US citizen from birth because her father was born in the US. Another possibility is that her father renounced his US citizenship while serving the Kingdom. The stories and histories of that troubled era indicate that such a step might have been taken by those haoles who were loyal to the crown.

She was a very calm easy going, but determined person and had a good sense of humor. She also worried a lot. She went by "Pearlie". I think in my generation, Margaret is closest to her personality & approach to life. My daughter Cathy also is a lot like her.

What she told Bruce (Robert Bruce) and I when she realized that our friends included some who weren't haoles (we were part of the beach boy gang), went something like --- all races have good qualities but that non-haoles have different morals.

She reasoned with Bruce and I when we got in trouble, but she also had a switch that was used on our bare legs when we were particularly bad.

Above all she and her sisters were ladies. They were the third generation of the Morgan family in Hawaii and daughters of a Governor of Hawaii, and held a high social, political and economic standing in the community. They all had the manners and mannerisms to go with their standing. One thing they would not do was get tan. Their creed was "Only mad dogs and Englishmen brave the noon day sun". They were actually outdoors a lot but kept covered and wore large brimmed hats to keep the sun off of their faces. Like the ladies of the southern plantatons on the mainland. When they went swimming they wore the womens bathing suits of the time, which also covered just about everything except ankles and heads. (Of course it has since been learned that that is the right thing to do).

An experience that she liked to talk about was when she and Dad went to the top of Haleukala. She explained what it was like to look down on the clouds. That wasn't a common experience in those days because there weren't any (or many) airplanes. We have a picture taken on the trip. It is of she and Frank and a others eating dinner. They are all dressed up and are being waited on by maids in kimonos. They really knew how to rough it. I understand that there was an outfit that did this as a business.

We spent a lot of time at Kokee (on Kauai) when we lived on Kauai and summers after we moved to Honolulu. The Kokee house was one of her father's houses. She drove the model T all over the bad roads at Kokee. I remember many harrowing experiences when she got into tight spots like having to turn around at the end of the road with a bank on one side and a cliff (or a least a bank) on the other. She would have everyone but her get out of the car and watch. Another Kokee thing was visiting her friends at the "Teachers Camp". I donÕt know exactly where it was but we had to walk in. When we got there all the teachers that were there would make a big thing of greeting her. She would say "I'll just be a few minutes then we'll go back". Of course the few minutes stretched into a few hours. (She also said I'll just be a few minutes when stopping for anything else--anywhere. It was never a few minutes). It is a characteristic that has been passed down to many of her descendants.

Her favorite song was "Red Sails in the Sunset". She played it on the Victrola at Punaluu while we all looked out to sea. When asked what she wanted for Mother's Day, her birthday or whatever she would reply "Just your love".

After graduating from Stanford she taught on Maui (most likely at Paia) where she met Frank.

She did just about any athletic activity that women of that time were allowed to do: crew, fencing, dancing, tennis, swimming, hiking---. She won a lot of tennis trophies on her own and some in doubles with Frank. She belonged to what we kids called the "old ladies club" next to the Outrigger Canoe Club at Waikiki. When she was young she was on a women's crew that worked out of the boathouse on the bridge end of the Ala Wai Canal.

The church was a big part of her life.

In Honolulu she taught weaving at the Honolulu vocational school on Harbor Island. And was a full time teacher of the 4th grade (maybe 3rd or 5th) at Thomas Jefferson Grade School at Waikiki.

She died of leukemia three months after Frank's death from an unsuccessful operation.

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