Loyal Garner (September 28, 1946 – November 15, 2001) was a Hawaiian musician and de facto leader of the Hawaiian singing group Local Divas. She was one of the most popular contemporary Hawaiian singers of her time and was active in the local music scene since the late 1960s. She was nicknamed the "Lady of Love" and her hits included "Shave Ice" from the 1982 album Island Feelings and "Blind Man in the Bleachers" from her 1981 album Loyal.
Loyal Garner was was born in Kalihi, and raised in Waialua, Honolulu and spent her high school years at Alewa Heights. Her grandfather Joseph Kuni, was noted for his musical tableaus that he would give throughout the islands. Her mother Alice Garner was a singer in the Royal Hawaiian Band. Loyal was a self-taught singer who got her first big break in 1966 singing at the Golden Dragon at the Hilton Hawaiian Village, a six-night-a-week gig she took while attending UH Manoa.
In 1975, she broke out on the local music scene as a performer at the Canoe House at the Ilikai. She released her first album, Hawai’i Today, two years later. Little did she realize how popular she would become. Her love of jazz, soul, and rhythm and blues would help her develop her style of music, a combination of Hawaiian and pop, appealing for those who wanted Hawaiiana but accessible for those who wanted a contemporary sound. Her first hint of success was being a co-writer of "Chotto Matte Kudasai" in 1970, which became favored not only by translated Japanese residents throughout Hawai'i, but the Japanese throughout parts of the United States as well as in Japan.
Popularity with her compositions lead her to being signed by Hula Records, where she would record and release her debut album, Lady Of Love, which immediately became one of her nicknames. She would have a surprise hit in 1981 with "Shave Ice", a soulful dance song that was a combination of Cheryl Lynn's "Got To Be Real" and Teena Marie's 'Square Biz". She appeared on a national Jim Nabors Christmas special and continued recording and performing, including becoming a part of Local Divas, a Hawaiian supergroup featuring Nohelani Cypriano, Melveen Leed, and Carole Kai.
During her career, she recorded numerous albums and performed throughout the world from Carnegie Hall to Tokyo. She won two Na Hoku Hanohano awards (the Hawaiian equivalent of the Grammy) for best female vocalist of the year in 1982 and 1993. When Garner was first diagnosed with colon cancer, doctors said she had about six to nine months to live. Loyal fought it for two years. Her death came a week before a scheduled Divas concert. The remaining divas revamped the concert into a tribute concert, titled "This one's for you, Loyal." The proceeds helped to pay some of the $90 thousand in medical bills. She succumbed to the disease at the Queens Medical Center, on November 15, 2001 at the age of 55.
Local Divas
In 2007 the Hawaii Academy of Recording Arts awarded Garner with a posthumous Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award. On April 2, 2007, Hula Records re-issued Garner's Hawai'i Today for the first time on CD format at the request of fans.
(Edited from Discogs, Wikipedia, Hawaii News Now, Aloha Got Soul, & Khon2)