Harold P. Luscomb was born April 27, 1926 in Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Pittsburgh. His Hilo-bom father, Harold P. Luscomb, Sr., had moved to Pennsylvania to work for Westinghouse Electric Company and to work toward a degree in electrical engineering. There he met his wife, Helen Jones Luscomb. Harold Jr., the couple's only child, was raised at the home of his maternal grandparents in Pittsburgh. At the age of ten, Harold, his father, and mother moved to Hilo, where his father was employed by Hilo Electric Light Company.

Masuo Kino was born April 2, 1929 in Kahuku Mauka (near N"mole), Hawai'i. His father, Kenkin Kino, was a laborer and independent sugarcane grower for Hakalau Plantation Company. His mother, Makato Inamine Kino, was a housewife who raised five children of which Masuo was the youngest. Kenkin and Makato Kino were immigrants from Okinawa. Masuo helped his father and mother in the sugarcane fields.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Fusae Tanaka Takaki was born May 28, 1923 in Hilo. She was the youngest of four children born to Eijiro Tanaka and Kura Hano Tanaka, both immigrants from Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. Eijiro Tanaka worked as a stone crusher, stevedore, and merchant marine. Her mother sold lunches and snacks from her car near Coconut Island and the Hilo wharf area. Takaki was raised in the Shinmachi district of Hilo, home to a large portion of Hilo's Japanese population.