Don Ho

Donald Tai Loy Ho (August 13, 1930 – April 14, 2007) was an American traditional pop musician, singer, and entertainer. He is best known for the song "Tiny Bubbles" from the 1966 album of the same name.

Ho was a singer of Native Hawaiian, Chinese, Portuguese, Dutch, and German descent. He was born in the small Honolulu neighborhood of Kakaʻako to Emily (Honey) Leimaile Silva and James Ah You Puao Ho, but he grew up in Kāneʻohe on the windward side of the island of Oʻahu.

He was a graduate of the Kamehameha Schools in 1949 and he attended Springfield College on a football scholarship in 1950, but he returned home to earn a Bachelor's degree in sociology at University of Hawaiʻi in 1953.

In 1954, Ho entered the U.S. Air Force, doing his primary training at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi and spent time flying C-97s with the Military Air Transport Service. Transferred to Travis Air Force Base, California, he went to the local city of Concord and bought an electronic keyboard from a music store, and recalls, "That's when it all started."

While in the military, Ho traveled from state to state with his young family until he was called home to help his mother with the family bar business, Honey's. Ho left the Air Force in 1959 due to his mother's developing illness and began singing at her club in Kaneohe. Honey's became a hotspot for the local entertainment and the growing customers from the Kaneohe Marine Base servicemen. Ho always honored the military remembering his own years of military service. In 1963, he moved the Kāneʻohe Honey's to Waikīkī. After much success, and little room to grow, promoter Kimo Wilder McVay sought Don to play at a night club called Duke's owned by Duke Kahanamoku, where he caught the attention of record company officials.

Biography summary from English Wikipedia, photograph via Wikimedia Commons.