Lois Kiehl Cain, who owned the home at 3015 Hibiscus drive where the shootout and fire occurred on Sunday morning, is now missing and presume dead, apparently at the hands of her tenant, who also perished the blaze that left a neighborhood destroyed and a city in mourning.
The news media have so far mainly referred to her as the “missing woman.” But, by all accounts, she lived a pretty remarkable life.
Here’s the lead sentence from an April 1975 article in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin by entertainment editior Keith Haugen:
“How does a former medical student with a degree in zoology end up as a belly dancer in a Greek restaurant in Honolulu?”
In her case, Haugen wrote, “it’s a long story.”
Lois Kiehl was the daughter of an Army colonel who served as chief surgeon at Tripler for four years. Lois attended the University of Hawaii, then the University of Washington where she earned that zoology degree.
It was in Seattle that she got into folk dancing, including learning some Greek dances. She then went off to travel in Europe with friends. After the others returned to the U.S., she traveled for another six months.
“I did crazy things. I worked on a farm, took a train ride to Moscow, studied folk lore, went to Greece, Turkey…Istanbul,” she told Haugen.
She then auditioned and was hired by a well known flamenco dance company in Barcelona, and spent two years touring, then continued on to South America with a second flamenco troop.
She came back to Honolulu to visit her sister, and read of a small Greek restaurant getting ready to open. She went to check it out, and became the featured dancer at the Mad Greek during the m id-1970s.
Other news clippings over the next several years chronicled her Greek belly dancing, and followed her dabbling in community theater and even choreography.
She met and married Raymond Cain, a principal landscape architect for Belt Collins Hawaii. He passed away in 2005.
Lois went on to become a librarian with the University of Hawaii, and served as a non-faculty member on the Library Faculty Senate for a number of years.
I met her when she was president of a Diamond Head condominium owners association where in 1987 she and Raymond purchased a small apartment in an oceanfront building just blocks from their Hibiscus Drive home.
Initial news from the scene on Sunday indicated Lois had been injured and taken from the scene by ambulance. But subsequent reporting determined that had been another woman at the house.
I heard from a mutual friend yesterday, who said he and his wife were “keeping our fingers crossed but are not hopeful.”
I hope that as reporters dig in, they’ll find much more of what appears to have been an extraordinary life tragically cut short.
This March 1975 photo from the Honolulu Star-Bulletin shows Lois Kiehl dancing, with then-Honolulu Mayor Frank Fasi sitting in the background.
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This photo is priceless. Mayor Fasi fit the role perfectly. Looks like scene from Star Trek TV. Right there at
La Pieter on Diamond Head Campus.
She certainly had the Circus Emperor’s best eye’s…with her smooth toned body.
Fasi, with shades of Cesar. I can hear His, Bolero & Italian Marching music in Honolulu Hale a long time ago. Lois Kiehl Cain dance left the Mayor truly spell bound. Keeping the Emperors mind at distracted ease!
Lois Kiehl Cain RIP…What an exciting and eclectic life!
Destroyed by a fool of no repute!
Thank you for providing background on a remarkable woman whose vibrant life deserves remembrance beyond the terrible circumstances of her death.
Thank you for sharing more on her life other than the “landlord” or “missing woman”. You have dignified her with grace and beauty. We here on the 9th Island of Las Vegas are so saddened by this horrific tragedy. Peace and Blessings to her family if they locate them on the mainland.
Thank you for telling us about Lois. From all accounts she genuinely tried to help this guy over the years. Many people underplayed his disturbance which was obviously profound. I’m am so sorry for all who lost homes and loved ones that day.
I knew Lois and rented that home from 1990-1996. She was a truly good person who helped out a lot of people with unusual situations. Her generosity with her time and effort and information searches was really extraordinary. I hate that she did a lot to help this madman and it ended in this way. Thank you for sharing her story.
What an incredible life! Thanks for posting this tribute to her.
My wife Mary & I were long time friends & admirers of Lois Cain, dating back to the old Mad Greek in Kakaako. Her deceased husband Ray & I played lots of hot tennis on the roof of the Honolulu Club. Mary & I saw them in Seattle when he fought blood cancer. She was always there, with her never ending sunny disposition, well informed on Ray’s malady. Lois was intelligent, well educated and caring. She learned about reading to terminally ill during their last days, and read to a mutual friend who then went into remission. We mourn the loss of the HPD Officers, while asking the media to characterize the life of a remarkable woman who was loved by so many, in a factual manner. Phil Broms
O No! Lois Kiehl!
We were in a show together–speaking of her “dabbling” in theater. 1978. The show was “Horse Opera” written by Kermit Love of Sesame Street, for Honolulu Theater for Youth. It was seen by every public school child–all bused in to Leeward Community College Theater. I played an opera singer. Lois Kiehl was the front end of the tap-dancing “horse”! We, me and the “horse”, rose up from underneath the stage.
Fantastically energetic, always cheerful, Lois did the choreography for the show as I recall…
Rest in Love Great Soul. I am grateful to be able to share these memories.
Read the story about the real Mrs. Cain in today’s Civil Beat by Denby Fawcett.
Ian, your reporting on Lois’s life is accurate and poignant. I knew her from the 70’s onward. Thank you for taking due note of a remarkable woman.