Happy ‘lived up to her name’

LIHU‘E — Happy Pleas-Preble was the longest-tenured advertising executive on staff at The Garden Island newspaper.

She passed away March 13.

The mood in the newspaper office was somber Monday morning as her co-workers struggled to cope with news of the loss of someone who truly lived and embodied the spirit of her first name.

“I don’t think there was a person who was not happy with her,” said Dennis Fujimoto, photographer and staff writer, who worked closely with Preble on advertising photo shoots. “She lived up to her name. It’s a bummer.

“She was the reason I’d go to King Auto Center,” he said. “Happy was a good person. She gave me a lot of leads just by going in to her accounts.”

Fujimoto said Jose Aguayo of King Auto Center told him a few weeks earlier that he missed Preble. At that time Fujimoto warned Aguayo jokingly that she would be coming back to “straighten them out” when she returned to work after a leave of absence that began in December.

When details of Preble’s death reached Fujimoto, he said, “I think that’s the way I would want to go,” quickly and apparently painlessly.

“Happy was a generous and loving person and always had a kind word to say about everyone,” said Steven McMacken, the newspaper’s graphics supervisor.

Details of the cause of Preble’s death were unavailable at press time.

Preble began working at The Garden Island in August 1995.

Fujimoto said he saw Preble at Lihu‘e Airport a few weeks ago, and she told him she had just returned from treatment in Honolulu and was eager to return to work.

Kellie Pleas, her daughter-in-law, said Preble had planned to return to work Monday.

Preble’s birthday is March 19, and friends had planned a birthday celebration and meal with her, Kellie Pleas said.

“Mom was a wonderful, wonderful person,” said Kellie Pleas, saying her mother-in-law died at home while two of her seven grandchildren, Keegan Pleas and Corbin Pleas, were with her at the time.

“It was so unexpected.”

When Kellie Pleas alerted Preble’s friends at the Waimea Public Library of her passing, they were shocked, because they had just seen her, and Preble never let on about any health problems.

While she worked in a very visible position in a very public business, she successfully kept her personal matters to herself, said some of her co-workers in the advertising department.

“Oh, gosh, it’s rocked our world, and we miss her desperately,” said Sharon Pleas, her daughter. “She loved people. Her job was all about people.”

She loved her job, even the daily commute from Kekaha to Lihu‘e that most people would complain about. “She loved the drive even. She was very cute.”

During her years with The Garden Island she and co-workers present and past paid money from their own pockets to get stray cats around the newspaper building spayed and neutered, and fed and took care of them.

At home, she had one cat, a male, Boo, “a rescue kitty from the humane society” who is fat because Preble over-fed him, Sharon Pleas said.

“She was really ready to return to work,” buying new clothes in anticipation of her return to duty, Sharon Pleas said.

After all, she had read nearly every book in the Waimea Public Library. “She was a voracious reader,” Sharon Pleas said.

“Happy was my dear friend, a class act beyond comparison,” said Debborrah Gia, co-owner of Printmaker in Lihu‘e and a former advertising salesperson at The Garden Island. “She was true to her namesake, happy about life. You will be deeply missed. I love you.”

“Personally and professionally, they don’t make ‘em like that anymore,” said Tom Niblick, Printmaker co-owner.

“She helped me professionally” by getting clients’ advertisements placed in the newspaper. “They don’t come any better than that,” said Niblick, adding that the loss is the island’s and the newspaper’s.

Preble is survived by three adult children: daughter Sharon (Bruce) Pleas and son Steve (Kellie) Pleas of Kekaha; and daughter Shauna (David) Jones of O‘ahu. There are seven grandchildren, and a brother in Argentina, Sheridan Cranmer.

Preble had twice made plans to visit her brother in Argentina, and both times those plans fell through, the most recent a planned one-month stay that was supposed to have begun in December 2009, Kellie Pleas said.

Preble did not want to be cremated, and did not want a public funeral service, so a private service is being planned, with a public celebration of life at a later date, Kellie Pleas said.

• Paul C. Curtis, staff writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@kauaipubco.com.