The oldest of two children born to Willard Hogle Branch and Elizabeth Mason Branch, Jeanne Branch Johnston was born in Hilo on December 2, 1939. Johnston's maternal grandfather, Charles William Mason, was the inventor of Canec, a fiberboard made from sugarcane bagasse. Mason became the superintendent of Hawaiian Cane Products Company, Ltd., located in Hilo near the site of the Waiakea Mill Company. After spending her early childhood in Hilo, Honolulu, Midway Island, and California, Johnston and her mother returned to Hilo in 1944.

Catherine Diama Campainha was born to Visayan immigrants, Catalina Buscas Diama and Agapito Diama, in Hilo, Hawai'i on March 28, 1938. She has five brothers and four sisters. Her father owned and operated Mamo Pool Hall, a billiard parlor located below their living quarters, and rented out rooms to bachelors in a boardinghouse. Her mother leased and ran the Ideal Meat Market until the mid-1940s. The Diama home on Mamo Street was a gathering place.

Violet Okino Hirata was born September 29, 1925 in Hilo. She was the third of seven children born to Yoshio Okino and Masako Kayano Okino, who owned and operated Okino Hotel on 482 Kamehameha Avenue. The hotel was started in 1913 by Yoshio's father, Yoshimatsu Okino, an immigrant from Japan. Violet Hirata grew up in family quarters in one section of the hotel. Along with her two older sisters, she helped her parents in the hotel dining rooin, serving food to customers and clearing tables. She also helped take care of her four younger brothers.

Kapua Wall Heuer was born February 1, 1912 in Kainaliu, Kona, Hawai'i. She was the youngest child of Allen Wall and Christina Lilinoe Roy Wall. Heuer's maternal grandparents were William F. Roy, a Scotsman who arrived in Hawai'i in 1860, and Eliza Davis Roy, a native Hawaiian. Together, they took up ranching in Kona. Growing up in Waihou, an area mauka of Kainaliu town, Heuer lived the ranching lifestyle. She rode horses, and learned to rope, herd, and ship cattle. Beginning in 1918, Heuer spent most of her time in Honolulu attending Punahou School.

The third of six children, Richard Furtado, was born in Lahaina, Maui on July 15, 1913 to Lucy Napelakaukau Furtado and Antonio D. Furtado. His mother was Hawaiian-Chinese; his father, a Portuguese immigrant who arrived in the islands at the age of four. His paternal grandparents from the Azores worked in the sugar industry. Later, his grandfather and father were in the meat business. The Furtados at one time owned the only meat market and slaughterhouse in Lahaina; they made and marketed Portuguese sausages throughout the territory.

Lenore Kumulani Van Gieson was born June 16, 1935 in Hilo, Hawai'i. Her father, Ebenezer Coit Hobron Van Gieson, was from a Honolulu family and educated at Kamehameha Schools; her mother, Victoria Kumulani Todd Van Gieson, a Hilo native. The oldest of four siblings, VanGieson grew up on property owned by her mother's side of the family in the Keaukaha section of Hilo. This section, known as Pu'umaile by old-timers, was an area where many of Hilo's elite resided full-time or part-time in beachfront homes and cottages.

Bunji Fujimoto, the sixth of ten children, was born March 22, 1930 in N"mole, Hawai'i. His parents, Saiji Fujimoto and Ei Sorakubo Fujimoto, were immigrants from Hiroshima, Japan. Saiji Fujimoto was a laborer and independent sugarcane grower for Wailea Milling Company which later (1944) merged with Hakalau Plantation Company. As a youth, Fujimoto helped his father in the sugarcane fields. His chores at home included cutting grass for livestock, feeding livestock and poultry, and tending the family garden.

Josephine Nelson Todd was born November 9, 1906 in Pepe'ekeo, Hawai'i. She was the seventh of eleven children born to Hans Peter Nelson, an immigrant from Denmark, and Mary Morgado Nelson, an immigrant from Portugal. Hans Peter Nelson was an employee for Pepe'ekeo Sugar Company. When Todd was a young girl, the family moved to Hilo. She grew up in the Villa Franca section of Hilo, an area populated predominantly by Portuguese. Portuguese was Todd's flrst language.

Masao Uchi.ma was born in Honoka'a, Hawai'i on May 22, 1928. When he was an infant, the family moved to 'O'okala, Hawai'i, where his father, Katsunoshin Uchima, was an independent sugarcane contractor. When Masao Uchima was five, the family moved to Hilo, where Katsunoshin Uchima began Eagle Laundry. The business was located on Kamehameha Avenue, in the Shinmachi section of Hilo. The family lived in a cottage behind the laundry. Katsunoshin Uchi.ma was an immigrant from Okinawa.

Albert Louis Stanley was born August 31, 1930 in Hilo, Hawai'i. His father, Clyde LeGrand Stanley, was originally from Missouri. He journeyed to Hawai'i as a young man in 1916 in search of excitement Settling flrst in Hilo working for Hawaiian Dredging Company, Clyde Stanley married Rosina Bassler, a public health nurse in Hilo. The couple eventually moved to Laupahoehoe, where he worked as a maintenance superintendent for Hawaiian Consolidated Railway, Ltd.