An evening of song and dance — in the manner that the hula master would have enjoyed — marked Friday's celebration of life of the man the world knew as "Uncle George."

The Afook-Chinen Civic Auditorium in Hilo was decked with thousands of flowers — both on the stage and on the people — and dotted with paintings of George Louis Lanakilakeikiahialii Naope. In one, he's a younger man depicted strumming a guitar and wearing a yellow lei. In another, he's pounding an ipu heke, or double gourd.

Naope's cremated remains were wrapped in white kapa and placed in a polished wooden umeke (container), flanked by two small white feather kahili. The umeke, draped with a single lei, sat on a platform in front of the stage that was decked with maile and many lei. His family sat in chairs on the auditorium floor.

Naope died Oct. 26 at his Waiakea Uka home at the age of 81.

He had been in poor health for a long time, but found the energy during this year's Merrie Monarch Festival to appear in a wheelchair at several performances, including the final night of competition.

Friday's memorial and celebration continued yesterday at the Civic, with a Hawaiian funeral service scheduled for 1 p.m.

Naope became known for his strict application of traditional dance.

In the early 1960s, he was hired by county chairman and chief executive officer Helene Hale (who sat Friday in the second row, behind Naope's sisters). Hale appointed Naope the promoter of activities for Hawaii County, which largely involved bringing events to the Civic.

"It's a celebration for a very interesting guy," Hale said. "He brought so much aloha to the state, and I've never seen anything like this for a celebration of life. I always believed that (hiring) George was the best thing I ever did."

Hoping to bring in more tourism to Hawaii County, Hale sent Naope and administrative assistant Gene Wilhelm to Maui to observe a popular festival called the Whaler's Spree. The two came back, and Naope suggested that the county hold a festival in honor of King David Kaläkaua, the Merrie Monarch.

Hale said the choice of the Civic as a venue for the service was appropriate.

"This is where the Merrie Monarch Festival was done at first," she said. "This was his job, to promote the activities here."

He served as a festival judge for many years but gave it up when, as he said, he made too many enemies.

Naope's other contribution was to turn hula into an international event. Through frequent travels to Japan, he became recognized everywhere, said friend Clive Tanimoto.

"He was a character," Tanimoto said. "He was a wealth of knowledge."

Everybody who knew Naope has a story to tell, Tanimoto said. Naope was well-loved because he was so approachable. He would meet with heads of state, but give the shirt off his back to a homeless person.

People from all different walks of life, everyone would all aloha him, he was so well-known," he said.

Friday's service appeared at times like an all-star concert. Robert Cazimero, Darlene Ahuna, Palani Vaughn, Eric and Pomaikai Keawe (the son and granddaughter of the late Genoa Keawe) all performed one last time for Naope.

The judges of the Moku O Keawe International Festival made a quick visit from Waikoloa to pay their respects to the family.

Cazimero remarked that there was "one hell of a big party up there in the sky."

One of Naope's best-known students, kumu hula Rae Fonseca, met Naope around age 11 and became a student two years later.

"He was very strict. A loving strict," Fonseca said. "There was no fooling around, and that's how you get to the learning process."

One thing Naope was fond of saying, Fonseca said, was that "Hula was the ability to create one's most inner feelings." It's a statement Fonseca has passed on to his students today, who now pick up the burden of carrying on Naope's tradition.

Fonseca learned from Naope, "so that would make him a hula god to me," said Ramsey Kamelamela, a student of Halau Hula O Kahikilaulani. He said it put a lot of pressure on the halau to dance in front of Naope.

The art of hula would have been weaker without him, Kamelamela said. "He perpetuated it and brought it back."

Kumu hula Iwalani Kalima helped coordinate the service. She became a student of Naope at the age of 8 and later became a caregiver.

She compared his role in the hula to that of Kaläkaua, except that Naope revived hula by sharing it with the world.

Friday's Roman Catholic service began at 5:30 p.m. After the placement of lei by the royal societies, and the invocation by Pastor Brian Welsh, Mayor Billy Kenoi read a proclamation marking yesterday "Uncle George Naope Day" in Hawaii County.

The audience sang "Hawaii Aloha" and listened to an a capella hymn by Kimo Kahoano.

Throughout the speeches by friends, a portrait emerged of a man who loved life, cigarettes, alcohol and all.

"There are so many sides of uncle," said Skylark Rossetti. "Uncle used to tell me, 'When I met you, you were my size. Now look at you.'

"He was a jokester. He loved to laugh," she said.