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Theresa Laanui

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Mother
  
Elizabeth Kamaikaopa

Signature
  


Name
  
Theresa Laanui

House
  
House of Laanui

Theresa Laanui

Born
  
May 1, 1860 Honolulu, Oahu (
1860-05-01
)

Issue
  
Daisy Cartwright Weaver Eva Cartwright Styne Robert Keoua Wilcox Virginia Wilcox Miller Elizabeth Kaʻakaualaninui Wilcox

Father
  
Gideon Kailipalaki Laʻanui

Died
  
January 5, 1944, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States

Spouse
  
Robert William Wilcox (m. 1896)

Children
  
Eva Kuwailanimamao Cartwright

Parents
  
Gideon Kailipalaki Laanui, Elizabeth Kekaaniau

Similar People
  
Gideon Peleioholani Laanui, Robert William Wilcox, Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Theresa Owana Kaʻohelelani Laʻanui (May 1, 1860 – January 5, 1944) was a descendant of Kalokuokamaile, the eldest brother of Kamehameha I. She was a member of the House of Laʻanui, a collateral branch of the House of Kamehameha.

Theresa Laanui FileTheresa Laanui Wilcoxjpg Wikimedia Commons

Life

She was born May 1, 1860, in Honolulu. Her father was Gideon Kailipalaki Laʻanui, a brother of Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau. Her mother was Elizabeth Kamaikaopa. She was a member of the House of Laʻanui, a collateral branch of the House of Kamehameha. Her children (except her two daughters by Cartwright) and male-line descendants belong paternally to the Wilcox family.

As a child, she would often go to the palace of King Kamehameha V to make leis for him. She was married four times, although she only had children from her first and second marriages. She was one-eighth French (via her great-grandfather Jean Baptiste Rives) and the rest Hawaiian descent. After her parents died in 1871, she was adopted by her aunt Elizabeth Kekaʻaniau Pratt.

She married Alexander Joy Cartwright III, son of Honolulu businessman and baseball pioneer Alexander Cartwright II on April 23, 1878. She was married under the name Theresa Owana Rives. By this marriage she had two daughters, Daisy Emmalani Napulahaokalani Cartwright (1879–?) and Eva Kuwailanimamao Cartwright (1881–1948). They divorced on April 5, 1883, and he eventually moved to San Francisco and married Susan Florence McDonald.

Her second marriage was on August 20, 1896 to Robert William Kalanihiapo Wilcox (1855–1903), a military leader who then became a popular politician. By this marriage she had a son, Robert Kalanikupuapaikalaninui Keōua Wilcox (1893–1934) and two daughters, Virginia Kahoa Kaʻahumanu Kaihikapumahana Wilcox (1895–1954) and Elizabeth Kaʻakaualaninui Wilcox who was born January 2, 1898 and died young November 24, 1898. She and Wilcox owned and operated two Hawaiian newspapers, the Liberal and the Home Rule Republican, which were written in the Hawaiian language and English. She was received at the White House during Wilcox's service (1900–1903) as the Territory of Hawaii's first Delegate to Congress.

In 1918, she was sentenced to three years of hard labor in prison for conspiracy in the first degree along with James Kealoha. They had attempted to use a forged will to claim Queen Liliuokalani's estates. She also claimed to be the deceased Queen's next of kin, as a great granddaughter of Keohokālole, Liliuokalani's mother, through her own mother Kamaikaopa, a claim that was dismissed by the Territorial Supreme Court. Her sentence was commuted in June 1922, and she was released on parole from the territorial prison by Governor McCarthy. Her full civil rights were restored by Governor Farrington in his Christmas pardons in 1923.

On February 10, 1909 she married Lewis R. Belliveau. and on January 16, 1922 she married John G. Kelly. She died on January 5, 1944.

References

Theresa Laanui Wikipedia