"Ah, yes. I have met your queen."

On July 31, 1898, Ima and her father sailed for Hawaii aboard the U.S. Navy's  Arizona. The United States had annexed the Hawaiian Islands, and ex-Governor James Stephen Hogg was among the dignitaries invited to Hawaii to witness the raising of the stars and stripes over the islands. (That is another story, but not here.) But there was an unexpected delay: As Ima wrote later, “The ship . . . was filled with officers and soldiers [and] was anchored at sea for a day or so when one of the rudders was out of order. This made us too late for the ceremonies.”

The voyage to Honolulu took eight days, and Ima, who had recently celebrated her sixteenth birthday on July 10, apparently had a fine time aboard. She kept a little notebook she labeled “My Freak Book” with a record of her trip, and all the Arizona’s officers signed it.

She and her father were in Hawaii by August 12, and stayed at the Hawaiian Palace Hotel. Years later, Ima recalled the events of their visit in her memoir:

”We were invited to Queen Liliuokalani’s birthday party celebration with music and native dancing outdoors, which was lovely.”

But Ima was not enchanted by the Queen’s residence, and even less enchanted by the Queen herself:

“The palace she lived in was not elegant and she was a large unattractive woman.”

Six decades later, when Ima Hogg was in her eighties, she once startled some Hawaiian visitors in Houston by remarking matter-of-factly, “Ah, yes. I have met your queen.”

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