"She wasn't like some performers who forget about their family," son George Hilo Jr. said. "She was a concerned mother, and she enjoyed playing music."

Myrtle Keahiaihonua Kahea Hilo died on Oct. 3. She was 80 years old.

During her long career, she recorded three solo albums and had songs on two other compilation albums. Her first recording was a 45 of the song "Baby Kalae." It led to her first album in 1968. She hosted radio shows, performed at Waikíkí hotels and luau, had speaking roles on several episodes of "Hawaii Five-0" and was in the cast of the movie "Hawaii," where she taught star Max Von Sydow to dance hula at the cast party. For years, she did promotions with Aloha Airlines and traveled frequently to perform on the Mainland.

Her comic songs, like "Will you love me when my carburetor is busted?," are still played on Hawaiian music stations. Her moniker "the singing cab driver" still makes people smile. She actually was a cab driver, a job she took in the late 1960s when her five children were old enough to look after themselves. She was known to burst into song for her fares, and if they hired her for a tour, she would serenade them at stops like the Pali lookout or Iolani Palace.

At home, she sang with her husband and children.

"Our family would sing songs and everyone had their own verse," George said. When they went out to dinner and fans recognized her, she was always proud to introduce her family.

"People used to come up to us and go, 'Oh, I saw your mom perform the other night. She made me laugh so hard!' and it would be, 'That's my mom.' We knew she enjoyed what she did and she made people happy. And that's a hard thing to do. She was an amazing woman."

Her husband, George Sr., who was a heavy-equipment operator for the Board of Water Supply, was her biggest fan and supporter. He encouraged her to pursue her career and took care of things at home when she was traveling.

"Dad was like a super-dad," George said. "He made sure we were fed and clothed, that none of us were sick. He made her even more comfortable doing what she was doing."

He was also her favorite singing partner. The two liked to perform "Ke Kali Nei Au," the Hawaiian wedding song, at parties. The twist was that George Sr. would sing the female part with his dazzling Hawaiian-style falsetto while Myrtle sang the male bass part. She had incredible range. She could sing the softest lullaby, had a soaring falsetto and could belt out a "rascal" song like a Broadway veteran.

"I don't practice, I just sing," she told a reporter in 1967. "If I'm happy, I sing happy."

Audiences loved her. Tourists who rode in her taxi would write back years later trying to book her in advance for their Hawaii vacations. Infamous Honolulu Advertiser columnist Sammy Amalu gushed about meeting her:

"When first they told me about Myrtle, I would not believe them," Amalu wrote. "They said that you could not listen to her without smiling, could not hear her without becoming a part of the fun of her. They told me that no matter how deep your private pit of despair, Myrtle could make even the heaviest burden a bit lighter Myrtle hoists herself on a stool, picks at her old ukulele, begins to bawl out a song, and all of a sudden you feel better."

She worked with other Hawaiian music notables like Sonny Chillingworth, Myra English and Linda Dela Cruz. She filled in at the Kahala Hilton for Danny Kaleikini when he was on tour, and covered for Hilo Hattie when she was ill.

She once told a story about performing at the Kahala Hilton one night and then getting in her cab and picking up one of the guests who had been in the audience. "Didn't I just see you performing in there?" the woman asked, incredulous. "Yes ma'am," she said, enjoying the moment.

In recent years, Hilo suffered from dementia. Though her memory failed her, her music remained. "We took her to her sister's funeral services in July," George said. "She was just sitting there, quiet. Somebody had the karaoke music playing and it was one of her songs, 'What Little Tears are Made of.' Next think you know, Mom was singing along."

She is survived by her sons, George and Kauai; daughters, Kehaulani Villegas, Kapiolani and Kawai; seven grandchildren; and nine great-grandchildren.

Services for Myrtle K. Hilo were held in Makakilo on Friday and on Kauai on Saturday before burial at Kekaha Hawaiian Cemetery next to her husband. That was her one wish, to be with him. She didn't want a funeral service.

"We were going to hold a service for her whether she liked it or not," George said. "I told her, Mom, you're an icon. People respect you. People love you. They'll want to say goodbye."

Many Hawaiian musicians wanted to play at the services. George was losing track of everyone who said they would be there to play for his mother. "Everybody is going be up there singing and playing music. She'll probably be up there, too. She'd be happy with that."