Princess Abigail Kawānanakoa, Hawaii’s Last Princess, Has Died at 96

On Monday, Hawaii’s Iolani Palace announced that Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawānanakoa, one of the last living members of the Hawaiian royal dynasty, had died at the age of 96. Known as Princess Abigail, she was sometimes called the last Hawaiian princess because of her ancestral connection to the last rulers of Hawaii before the monarchy was abolished in 1893. According to People, she died peacefully on Sunday night at Nu’uanu, by the side of her wife, Veronica Gail Kawānanakoa.

After her death was announced, Hawaii’s governor, Josh Green, ordered the US and state flags to be flown at half-mast. “Jaime and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Princess Abigail Kinoiki Kekaulike Kawānanakoa,” he said in a statement posted to his Facebook page. “Abigail bore the weight of her position with dignity and humility, enriched the lives of everyone she touched, and like so many Aliʻi [royalty] who came before her, she has left a legacy dedicated to her people in perpetuity.”

Though the members of Abigail’s family have no official titles, they have remained prominent as landowners and politicians over the last century and were embraced as living reminders of the monarchy. The only child of Princess Lydia Kamaka’eha Liliu’okulani Kawānanakoa Morris and William Jeremiah Ellerbrock, Abigail was born on April 23, 1926, in Honolulu. At the age of five, she was adopted by her grandmother Abigail Campbell Kawānanakoa, a politician and early feminist, so that she could become an heir to the royal estate. She was educated at the Punahou School, the Honolulu independent school that also counts Barack Obama as an alum. 

Abigail’s great-grandfather James Campbell was a sugar plantation owner and amassed land holdings across Hawaii. According to the Associated Press, Abigail inherited about $215 million from the family trust. People noted that she became a major philanthropist, donating a sum of money to help restore the Iolani Palace, the ancestral home of Hawaiian royalty, into a museum open to the public. She also supported efforts to revive the Hawaiian language, provide educational scholarships, and pay off medical bills for those in need. She was also known as an accomplished equestrian and horse breeder, once winning $1 million at the All-American Futurity race in Ruidoso, New Mexico.

She married Veronica, her longtime partner and private secretary, in 2017, shortly after reportedly suffering a stroke. In 2020, a judge reportedly ruled that she was unfit to manage her own affairs and that her property was being “inappropriately wasted and dissipated.”