Margaret Nearing(1913-1983)
- Actress
American circus star Margaret Nearing was 4 when she sang for the
troops in WWI. At 7, she and her sister Rose (9), without benefit of
poles or umbrella's, were the youngest and only "song and dance" tight
wire act in the world. The Davies Sisters grew up on the road, working
circuses, rodeos, theaters and State Fair's across the country and in
Hawai'i. While in San Francisco in 1930, and now known as the Nearing
Sisters, they had their own show on radio KFWI, sang and danced tap and
soft shoe at the Casino Theater, and appeared on opening night at the
new Fox Theater. In 1933, the beautiful, blue eyed, curly haired,
platinum blonde soprano started working the major movie studios where
she was known as "The little lady with the big voice". In 1935, she
sang in the first coast to coast radio broadcast (San Francisco to New
York). In 1936, she moved to Hawai'i and married famed hula dancer,
legislator and Real Estate Broker Kenneth Olds (a descendant of the
royal houses of Tahiti and Hawai'i). They have four children,
Nalani-Alua Napoleon, Kenneth Olds Jr., Francine McLaughlin and
Mauliola Aspelund. Nearing spent the rest of her life in Lanikai on the
Island of O'ahu where in 1961 she co-founded the "Mortgage Players"
which she directed, choreographed, and costumed until 1983 when she
died of throat and lung cancer at the age of 70.
