Born and raised in Chicago, Mary Laune came to Hawai‘i with her family
in 1939, graduated from Roosevelt High School in Honolulu, and went off
to Beloit College in 1941. W.W.II called her back to her family,
and she began her career as an artist (pastel, oil, and watercolor), a
retail production manager (Ritz and Liberty House Stores) and an editor
(Wahiawā Rural Reporter, Honolulu Star-Bulletin, and the University of
Hawai‘i Press--one of her books was re-published in 1995: Hawaiian Almanac). She married Robert Aitken in 1947. In order
to provide support and security for her little boy, she put her passion
for art in abeyance in 1959 and became a public servant as an information
specialist for the State of Hawai‘i and then the County of Honolulu.
She met a Roosevelt high school classmate at her 30th reunion and he became her second
husband in 1965. She retired in 1980, returned to her art, and moved to
Hoopa, CA, to live with her sister. A near fatal auto accident in
1982 left her dependent on her son, Tom, for 2 years before she was able to make
a precarious escape to Carson City, NV. In 1991, she moved to the
Big Island of Hawai‘i to be closer to her son. INot long after, ill health precipitated
by diabetes and residual difficulties from the earlier accident required
her to join her son's household until her death in 1996.
| Mary Laune, of Pahoa, Hawaii, 71, a retired transportation information specialist with the city and state, died Thursday at home. She is survived by son Thomas L. Aitken. Private services. No flowers. Donations suggested to Prevent Child Abuse of Hawaii or Hawaiian Humane Society. [Honolulu Star Bulletin] |