A Walk Down Memory Lane

Myra Aroha Memory Love, who passed away in London on 25 October 2017, was a shareholder in Wairarapa Moana. We take a look at Myra’s interesting life…

Myra Love, born in 1934 in Petone, was the daughter of the Queen of Rarotonga and Paramount Ariki of the Cook Islands, Takau Tinirau Makea Rio, and a commander of the Màori Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel Eruera Te Whiti o Rongomai Love, and the great-great-great granddaughter of chief, Honiana Te Puni-Kokopu.

When Myra’s mother passed away in 1947, Myra, her sisters and a cousin grew up with their grandmother, Ripeka Wharahara and grandfather, Wi Hapi Pakau, chief of Te Atiawa. Myra attended Hutt Valley High School, where she was Head Girl.

Cousin, Peter Love, who lived with the sisters, recalled a high-spirited girl who loved singing. They would sneak down the long track from their home to be met by a friend, a bass player, who took them into Wellington where Myra sang in a jazz band. At the age of twenty-one, Myra ran away to America to become a jazz singer. Selling a piece of land inherited from her grandmother to her uncle for 300 pounds, Myra bought a passage on a P&O liner to San Francisco.

Myra later moved to New York and eventually to London, where she met and married metalwork sculptor, George Cutts, and raised three children.

Myra sang throughout her life, performing jazz in the Tabu Club in Paris and cabaret at American bases in Germany. In England, Myra was a regular at the Satire Club in St James, London and on the BBC.

Following her divorce, Myra did her teacher training course at the Open University and found work at a school in London’s East End.

Myra continued singing and became a popular figure in the East End, renowned for singing jazz at the Palm Tree, a much-loved canal-side Cockney outpost known for its knees-up live jazz nights. While Myra’s daughter remained in London her two sons moved to the Cook Islands.

Despite most of her life lived overseas, Myra still felt connected to both the Cook Islands and New Zealand. So much so, that she requested her ashes be divided up and interred alongside her mother in the palace grounds at “Taputaputea” in Rarotonga and her grandmother, Ripeka Wharawhara Love, in the family urupa in Te Puni Street, Petone, down the hill from where she was born.

Myra Love was Rarotongan royalty but never played the role of princess of the Cook Islands. Instead she became a noted jazz singer performing all over the world and later a teacher of underprivileged children in London’s East End.

Source: Stuff 2017

EMILY LAURA OWEN

Can you help?

The office is holding substantial unclaimed dividends for Emily, and we are attempting to locate any descendants/ rightful beneficiaries and would appreciate any information that may bring a successful result. This is what we know about Emily:

Emily’s mother was Rora Hihiko Matai (1910-1970) aka Rora Hihiko Fitzgerald, who married Robert Kiki Harden (1892-1965).

Emily, nee Fitzgerald, was born 16 March 1932 and died on 6 August 1994 and is at rest at (Avenue) Levin Cemetery, with her husband Hugh Edmond Owen.

Any information would be greatly appreciated. Call Amethyst on 370 2608 or 0800 662 624 or email: wmoffice@wairarapamoana.org.nz