HONOLULU (AP) — The casket bearing the 96-year-old heiress long considered the last Hawaiian princess has gone on public display in the downtown Honolulu palace. Abigail Kawānanakoa’s casket was handcrafted from a 165-year-old koa tree that fell during a 2021 storm on the Big Island. The casket arrived Sunday at ʻIolani Palace. Members of a law enforcement honor guard carried the casket up the palace’s front stairs and into the throne room. Kawānanakoa held no formal title but was considered a princess because her lineage included the royal family that once ruled the Hawaiian islands. She died last month at her home in Nuuanu, near downtown Honolulu.
FILE – Native Hawaiian heiress Abigail Kawānanakoa poses outside a Honolulu courthouse on Oct. 25, 2019. Kawānanakoa, the so-called last Hawaiian princess whose lineage included the royal family that once ruled the islands and an Irish businessman who became one of Hawaii’s largest landowners, died on Dec. 11, 2022. She was 96. Kawānanakoa’s casket is set to go on public display Sunday, Jan. 22, 2023, in the downtown Honolulu palace that benefited from her wealth. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher, File)
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