Frankie DeCosta passed away on June 10, 2012 at the age of 84. He was a longtime member of the ILWU at Kekaha Sugar Company and was heavily involved in the Union, his community, and the Democratic Party. He was a rascal, a charmer, and a strong ILWU member to the end. Clayton Dela Cruz, retired Kauai Division Director, gave the following eulogy at Frankie’s service.
Frankie DeCosta and wife Dolores with Mufi Hannemann in 2010.
Good morning.
We are here today to honor and celebrate the life of Frank Fulton DeCosta, Sr. When the family asked me to do the eulogy for my friend Frankie, I was truly humbled and gladly said “okay.”
Frankie was born on November 29, 1927 in Waimea, Kauai and passed away on June 10, 2012 at Kauai Veterans Memorial Hospital in Waimea. He would be 85 years old in November of this year.
In his 85 years, Frankie has done and accomplished many, many things. Frankie was the youngest of eleven children and the last surviving one. He attended school here in Kekaha and Waimea. He graduated from Waimea High School in 1946 and immediately joined the U.S. Army. After a couple of years in the service, he was honorably discharged in 1949. He returned to Hawaii and came home to Kekaha. He then started his employment at Kekaha Sugar Co., Ltd. as a “service man.” He again wanted to serve his country and enlisted in the National Guard.
These were the years where everything seemed to be carefree and casual. Like many a young man, he was always “checking out” the girls from near and far and finally this one lovely young lady caught his fancy. Her name was Dolores Pacheco and they started dating. Their love affair grew and on May 24, 1952, they were married. They recently celebrated 60 years of marriage and were surprised by their children, grandchildren, relatives, and close friends with a party at Hanamaulu Café.
in his life (1950s), Frankie started getting involved in almost everything there was to get involved in. He became involved in the union at Kekaha Sugar (Unit 3106). He participated and became a member of the “KCA” (Kekaha Community Association), and subsequently became a board member and later President.
Many of the oldtimers know that the KCA supported many things, such as the Little League teams, swim meets at the Kekaha Pool, distribution of Christmas packages to the children of Kekaha at the movie theater, and, yes, sponsoring and putting on the fabulous 4th of July Carnival with the best fireworks show on Kauai at the time. Frankie was there at all of these activities. He was there distributing Christmas packages to the children at the theater. He was there building carnival booths and planning the events. He also did the duties of Master of Ceremonies. He was everywhere. He was “Mr. Kekaha.”
He was also a strongly religious man and attended St. Theresa’s Church faithfully and, in his later years, Sacred Hearts in Waimea. When St. Theresa’s annual carnival came around, I remember working with Frankie again, building booths, stringing lights and whatever needed to be done for the carnival. Frankie was again the Master of Ceremonies for this event. He was there when the church burned and helped in rebuilding this church.
In fact, Frankie was everywhere in Kekaha. You couldn’t miss him. Why? Because he was in the middle of town doing his job operating the service station for Kekaha Sugar Company. Kekaha was a “sugar plantation town” and all the workers could get gas from the company service station and charge it to their bango number. No need for cash. Frankie knew everybody’s name and “bango” number by heart. He would know who would put only a couple of dollars in their cars and those who would say “fill it up.”
When election time came around, Frankie could be seen walking the town “house to house” with candidates he supported. He was a lifelong registered Democrat and was very open about who he was supporting. I remember his old Plymouth station wagon covered with political candidates’ bumper stickers. It would be parked right there by the service station. Talk about subtle campaigning. Everyone in Kekaha knew where the DeCostas’ residence was because of all the political yard signs on his fence. In 1978, Frankie ran for and was elected to a seat from the County of Kauai to the Constitutional Convention. ConCon for short. There he met up with a young Hawaiian attorney, who was elected from the Big Island and they became lifelong friends. That person later became the Governor of Hawaii, John Waihee. He also met and served in the Con-Con with a member of the University of Hawaii’s basketball team known as the Fabulous Five, John Penebacker, and they became good friends. At the recent Democratic State Convention in Honolulu, Frankie and Dolly, who were official delegates, were honored and introduced to the audience for their longtime involvement with the Party. Frankie also served as a commissioner on the Kauai Water Board.
Frankie was a man who believed in unionism and thus his involvement with the ILWU. He took active leadership roles by being the secretary and later the chairman of Unit 3106 - Kekaha Sugar. When the sugar industry negotiated a master contract for all the sugar companies, Frankie represented the workers of Kekaha Sugar Co. He was a member of the Kauai Division Executive Board and also the Local Executive Board. He worked for a while at the ILWU as an organizer. He also was the Kauai Division PAC chairman for many years. He attended and was a delegate to International and Local Conventions here and on the mainland. In his retirement years, he was active in the ILWU pensioner program and participated in their picnics and conferences. I’d like to mention also that Frankie was a member of the joint “Union and Management Housing Committee” here at the plantation and, in 1979, discussions started with Amfac Properties about the possibility of home ownership and rental units. Discussions and meetings became a reality in 1982 when the first homes were sold and elderly and rental units were built. Many of our members bought their homes or purchased lots to build new homes. Frankie was in the midst of these discussions and negotiations
Frankie was always seen with his coke bottle when he was working. I think he put the most money into that soda machine. He was a fun-loving guy and did many practical jokes. None of them lifethreatening, but oh so hilariously funny.
Sports was abundant in Frankie’s life. He played a mean game of tennis, participated in football (barefoot and with shoes), helped with the Kekaha Pop Warner Association, played softball (all kinds—fast-pitch, slow-pitch, mountainball) and was on the roster of his nephew’s team Cucu’s Aces of the Kauai Senior League. He was the President of the Kauai ILWU Sports Program and played fast-pitch softball for Unit 3106’s Kekaha Sheiks. In his later years, he and I would do the play-by-play for our league games. Frankie told me that he was the best miler on Kauai in high school and he would be so far in front of the other runners, he would turn around and run backwards while watching them. He didn’t care about setting a record time. All he wanted to do was to win.
He was in many bowling leagues and participated in many state tournaments. He also tried his boxing skills when KCA held boxing matches. He would set up volleyball matches with the supervisors’ team at the manager’s house. Win or lose, we all had a good time. His favorite baseball team was the St. Louis Cardinals, but he also told me he liked the Cleveland Indians because of a player named Rocky Colavito. His favorite football team was the San Francisco 49ers. Oh yes, Frankie ran and completed a couple of Honolulu Marathons. Imagine running 26.2 miles and he was in his sixties.
In 1993, he officially retired from Kekaha Sugar Co., but he still kept working in various other jobs--bus driving for Akita Bus Service and Kauai Island Tours, also security work for a number of companies.
As you can see, Frankie had a very active life and I wondered how he raised a family. Well, he did it in spite of all of his other activities. He and Dolly raised four children—two sons, Frankie Jr. and Stan; two daughters, Julie (Calvin) Kajiwara and Vanessa (Michael) WoodmanseeO’Laughlin. Frankie is also survived by eight grandchildren, six greatgrandchildren, two hanai grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews and cousins, his pet cat that he used to feed Vienna sausages and hide it from Dolly, and oh yes, his many ducks. Maybe that’s why roast duck was his favorite food along with prime rib and ham. When I traveled with him and he would order breakfast, all he cared about was the size of the ham. He wanted his portion of ham to be large
When I visited Frankie at the hospital last Thursday, he was very much in pain, but when his grandchildren went to his side and called him “Papa,” his eyes lit up and that big smile came over his face. Through the years, I’ve had many laughs, stories, and discussions with Frankie, but one thing always stood out. That was his love and concern for his family. His family was truly his first love. He was always concerned about their well-being. In closing, I’d like to quote a saying that I heard somewhere: “If a man’s wealth is measured by the amount of friends he has, then here today, I can say Frankie was truly a wealthy man.” To Dolly and family, my deepest love and aloha. To Frankie, as you said to Andrew Lazaro when you did his eulogy, “Hey gang, some day we’ll be seeing you at the finish line.”