Edene Vidinha was the youngest of three children and only girl born to Maurice Smith and Emma Wohlers Smith in 1905. After Maurice Smith died, Edene was raised by her mother and stepfather, John Naleimaile, Koloa Plantation policeman, who later became a Kaua'i county policeman in Koloa.  Edene and her family lived in a home adjoining the courthouse in Koloa, where her stepfather worked. She first attended Koloa School, then transferred to Kawaiahao Seminary in Honolulu. She graduated from Kaua'i High School, then received her teaching certificate from Normal School in 1926. Returning to Kaua'i to teach, her first assignment was at Hule'ia School. She later returned to teach at Koloa School, where she retired thirty-seven years later. Edene in 1930 married Antone Kona" Vidinha, who, like her stepfather, was a Kaua'i county policeman. Vidinha was mayor of Kaua'i from 1967 to 1973. A recent resident of 'Oma'o passed away in 1988 .

Scope and Content Note
A teacher reviews her life, covering Koloa School, Kawaiahao Seminary, and normal school training; teaching; her father's and husband's police work; buying land; her husband's mayoral election and later tax problems; her Poipu home; and Hurricane Iwa.

Program Note:  
This interview is part of the Center for Oral History's project Koloa: An Oral History of a Kauai Community. Interviews from this project are available in the Center's ScholarSpace open access repository.

The Center for Oral History (COH), in the Department of Ethnic Studies at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, collects, documents, preserves and highlights the recollections of Native Hawaiians and the multi-ethnic people of Hawaiʻi. It produces oral histories and interpretive historical materials about lifeways, key historic events, social movements and Hawaiʻi’s role in the globalizing world, for the widest possible use.