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The Roman Catholic Cemetery is located at 839 S. King Street in the urban heart of Honolulu. It is bordered on the front by King St. and in the back by a large building and service alley which was filled with delivery vehicles the day I was there. On either side of the cemetery are multi-story buildings which front King St. It is the final resting place of many of the early Portuguese immigrants to Hawaii and the graves date to the the 1910s and 1920s. The cemetery is in a poor state of repair, the grounds, it seems, are not maintained and many graves are unmarked. I noticed several piles of broken and/or dislocated headstones throughout the cemetery. Manuel Nunes is buried there along with his second wife, Izabel, mother of Julius Nunes. To find the graves, take the main King St. entrance (shown above) and walk all the way past the central memorial and trash dumpster (below) to the very back of the cemetery.
Turn left and walk past several graves until you see two large, red granite headstones, which mark the graves of Manuel and Izabel Nunes (below).
The large, angular-shaped markers represent a stylistic break with the surrounding monuments and are easy to find. Relatively recent additions that have been made to Nunes’ grave include an ukulele chiseled in the beveled top of the stone.
Nunes’ portrait as it appears on the back of his headstone.
Makiki Cemetery is located at 1620 Pensacola Street on the eastern slope of Punchbowl Crater. The view of Honolulu, the mountains and water is spectacular. On the day I visited Makiki Cemetery it was swept by freshets of cool rain drops. Older than the King Street Cemetery, Makiki is the final resting place of many Hawaiians and early Japanese immigrants. The graves are arranged informally by nationality into Hawaiian, Portuguese, and Budhist sections which are easily discernable by the different style markers. The Budhist graves are particularly striking and very well maintained. I had hoped to find the grave of Augusto Dias on the day I visited Makiki Cemetery since his 1915 obituary mentioned that he was to have been buried there, however, in a survey of Honolulu cemeteries completed in the 1980s Dias’ grave was not found. Since the graves of Dias’ wife, Carolina, and João Fernandes, were listed in the survey, I thought it would be worth the trip anyway. Fortunately I was able to locate the grave of Augusto Dias. The marker was very worn and nearly unreadable but was unmistakeably the grave of Dias.
To find the graves of Dias and João Fernandes, enter at the Pensacola Street gate and walk straight into the cemetery, up the hill and past the grave of Abraham Fornander which will be on your right. About halfway in, turn right, and find the small group of Portuguese graves. (below)
About fifty feet into the Portuguese section of graves is the large granite monument of João Fernandes and his wife (below, with the author). It is also visible in the photo above, to the right of center.
The grave of Dias is about 75 feet beyond Fernandes’ beneath a small plumeria.
The inscription reads:
AUGUSTO DIAS
FALECEU
A 5 DE FEVE DE 1915
COM
73 ANNOS DE EDADE
(AUGUSTO DIAS
DIED
FEBRUARY 5, 1915
AT
73 YEARS OF AGE)
My brother Paul and his wife Joan helped me make a rubbing of the Dias marker, which is seen below.
©2002 John King. All rights reserved.