Margaret Nearing

Biography

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.