Hawaiian Trio Leader Passes

SAN FRANCISCO (AP)—Funeral services will be held Wednesday for Daniel Ku, native of Hawaii and for years the leader of the luxury liner Lurline’s famed Hawaiian trio.

He died Sunday of cancer at the San Francisco Marine Hospital. He was 54.

Ku, billed as “King of the Steel Guitar,” had played at many major hotels and night clubs in Hawaii and San Francisco. He joined the Matson Line in 1950 and bbecame an institution on the ship’s cruises.

On Dec. 20 the crew of the Lurline presented him with a huge Christmas card and a check. Then they sailed. Ku, ill, then went to the hospital.

Ku and his wife, Betty, had made their home here the last 27 years.

In addition to his widow, he is survived by two daughters, Mrs. Elthea Serrao [Mrs. Althea Serrao] and Mrs. Danette Lono, both of Hawaii; eight grandchildren, and a brother Johnny Ku, a noted Hawaiian orchestra leader.

(Reno Evening Gazette, 1/21/1964, p. 3)

Reno Evening Gazette, Eighty-eighth Year, Number 252, Page 3. January 21, 1964.