Ray Kinney

Another in my occasional series on our famous (and usually pretty distant) relatives. Ray Kinney (1900-1972) was a singer, musician, orchestra leader, actor, and composer. He was particularly noted for his Hawaiian music, meaning the type of music that was created to drive and appease tourism, rather than music of the native peoples of Hawai'i. However, Kinney was of Native descent, through his mother, Pilialoha Kinney. His work was extremely popular over 600 songs and a recording career of more than 40 years. He was inducted into the Hawaiian Music Hall of Fame in 2002.

Ray's father was William Kinney (1832-1915). The Kinneys were prominent citizens of Nova Scotia, where they had lived since the Revolutionary War. They were heavily involved in the major industry of the region: seafaring. Kinneys owned some of the biggest ship-building enterprises on the coast, and many owned or operated ships. William's second cousin (and my 4xgreat-grandfather), Simeon Bartlett Kinney, was a master mariner who originally sailed the Boston to London route, then moved to the west coast to sail the San Francisco-Hawai'i-China route. He ended his days as a harbor master in San Francisco.

William Kinney also moved from Nova Scotia to the west, but his path took him to Hawai'i where he married, first, Caroline Dailey, and then at least three other women, all of whom were Native Hawaiian, including Kaiwiho'Opilpili Kinney and, last, Ray's mother, Pilialoha. William's descendants include a number of well-known Hawaiians, especially his son by his first wife, William Ansel Kinney, who was a prominent lawyer and politician, and one of the main forces in overseeing the transition of Hawai'i from a Kingdom to a Republic to a Territory of the United States. He served as the Judge Advocate during the military trail of Queen Liliʻuokalani for treason. He signed the Treaty of Annexation with the United States in 1897. In 1909 he represented the Queen in the landmark case "Liliuokalani v. The United States", in which she attempted to get compensation for the annexation of her land. Interestingly, his great-niece, historian Rubellite Kawena Kinney Johnson, would later challenge that case as part of her long career of fighting for Native Hawaiian rights.

Ray Kinney was William Kinney Sr.'s youngest son. When I was a child, my great aunt told us stories about the Kinney family in Hawai'i. Interestingly, everyone I've talked to remembered her as saying that the Kinneys there, including a famous Hawaiian singer, were the children of Simeon Kinney or his son Thomas, who, as she put it, had a family in every port. That's clearly not the case, and I don't know if we are mis-remembering, or if she was mis-informed. I've never found any evidence that Simeon or Thomas Kinney did have more than one family (although it certainly wouldn't be unusual for the time or situation), but such evidence would be difficult to find, even if the rumors were true. Perhaps, someday, cheap DNA tests will help me and my Chinese, Hawaiian, or British cousins to find each other.

In the meantime, we can all enjoy Ray Kinney's music.