Edith King Wilcox, community volunteer and descendant of early Kaua‘i settlers, died Saturday at Wilcox Memorial Hospital . “Edie” Wilcox was 90. In 1934, she married Samuel Whitney Wilcox who passed in 1975. Edie Wilcox was a long-time volunteer at
Edith King Wilcox, community volunteer and descendant of early Kaua‘i settlers, died Saturday at Wilcox Memorial Hospital .
“Edie” Wilcox was 90.
In 1934, she married Samuel Whitney Wilcox who passed in 1975.
Edie Wilcox was a long-time volunteer at gift shops at Wilcox Hospital and at the Kaua‘i Museum.
In honor of her long service, the Kaua‘i Museum Gift Shop is named for her.
Edie Wilcox preferred to remain in the background and allow others to take credit for most of her accomplishments including her success in getting a new church built for Saint Michael and All Angels Church in Lihu‘e.
Her longtime friend, Nancy Good-ale said: “Edie in her quiet way never wanted to be in the limelight. She said she was not a leader but a follower, yet she got a lot done.”
Her nephew, Thomas D. King of Kilauea, said Edie Wilcox was a strong woman who was interested in everything.
King said for a while Edie Wilcox ran a nursery business from her greenhouse in Lihu‘e exporting bird of paradise seedlings to the Mainland to raise money for her church.
Edie Wilcox’s great-grandfather, Godfrey Wundenberg, was an early settler in Hanalei.
Godfrey Wundenberg was involved in pioneering efforts to cultivate coffee on the plantation of Robert C. Wyllie in Hanalei Valley.
Wundenberg later became manager of Wyllie’s sugar plantation at Princeville.
In 1863, Kamehameha V appointed Wundenberg to be the treasurer of the Hawaiian Kingdom.
Wilcox’s grandmother, Josephine Wundenberg King, is considered by some to be the inventor of the ice cream cone.
Josephine Wundenberg liked to serve women and children of the Hawaiian Sunday School held in her house in Lihu‘e, ice cream in bowls with silver spoons.
When Josephine noticed some of her silver spoons were missing, she asked a Japanese baker to roll senbei into cornucopias so she could serve the children ice cream without spoons.
Wilcox’s descendants began to make their way from England to the Pacific in 1793 when Wilcox’s great-great grandmother, Ann Thorne, was convicted as a child for stealing a silver spoon from the dining table of her father’s Army regiment.
When the English sent the young Ann to Sydney, Australia, as a child convict, her father and mother left England to accompany her. Ann Thorne’s daughter, also named Ann, eventually married Edie’s great-great-grandfather, William Henry, and worked by his side for 33 years at missionary posts in Australia and Tahiti.
Edie Wilcox is predeceased by her daughter, Deborah Wilcox Pratt. She is survived by daughters Pamela W. Dohrman, and Judith W. King, eight grandchildren and 18 great-grandchildren.
Wilcox’s memorial service will be at Lihu‘e Cemetery at 4 p.m. on Monday. A reception will follow the service at 5 p.m. at Grove Farm Homestead.
The family asks that no flowers be sent. Donations in Wilcox’s name may be made to Wilcox Health Foundation or St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church.
