Amy Beatrice Holdsworth Greenwell (1920 - 1974)

Born 1920 in Hawaii, United States

Ancestors

Died 1974 at about age 54 in Hawaii, United States

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Amy Greenwell is Notable.

Biography

Amy was born in 1920. She was the daughter of Arthur Greenwell and Beatrice Holdworth. She passed away in 1974. She was a well-known Hawaiian Botanist who served as a nurse in World War II. After the war she worked with Otto Degener of the New York Botanical Garden on a book series titled Flora Hawaiiensis on Hawaiian plants. From 1953 to 1957 she served on a Historical Site Commission for the Territory. She performed archaeology studies of early habitation sites of Hawaii including Ka Lae (South Point), and wrote other books on tropical plants. Later in her lifetime she transformed her property by planting native and Polynesian-introduced plants in the extant Hawaiian agricultural areas. She left the garden to the Bishop Museum on her death in 1974 to be opened to the public. ^[1]

Her maternal grandparents were merchant Edmund William Holdsworth and Edith Mary Winifred Purvis (1860–1950), who was a first cousin of Annie Oliphant Cornelia Purvis (1870–1947), great-great-grandmother of 23rd Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau and a distant cousin of William Herbert Purvis, a plant collector on the other side of the island. ^[1]

Email from Amy's first cousin

I am Amy’s first cousin, once removed, and president of Friends of Amy B. H. Ethnobotanical Garden, a non profit running Amy’s legacy garden. She was born in Honolulu (September 7, 1920) and died at Queen’s Hospital in Honolulu ( August 5, 1974). I just wanted to put these dates in for you. Her paternal grandparents were Henry Nicholas Greenwell and Elizabeth Caroline (Hall) Greenwell, English pioneers here in Kona in the 19th century. Yes, she never married and therefore had no children, thereby freeing her up for adventures.

Her passion was plants, Hawaiian history, archaeology and PUGS!! She had over 20 pugs in two kennels in her back yard when she got sick and had to go to Honolulu for treatment. She loved gourmet cooking and was sprouting alfalfa seeds on paper towels to eat in her sandwiches long before anyone else in Kona was doing such a thing - perhaps except for a few hippies!

Her early death was a great loss for her family, friends and for Kona. The garden developed after her death for education and pleasure by Bishop Museum at Amy’s request in her will is a treasure that lives on to this day.

Aloha,

Maile Melrose

Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_B._H._Greenwell_Ethnobotanical_Garden

• "United States Census, 1930," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XH1N-G7Q : accessed 14 October 2021), Amy Greenwell in household of Beatrice Greenwell, Honolulu, Honolulu, Hawaii, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) ED 26, sheet 6A, line 4, family 117, NARA microfilm publication T626 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2002), roll 2633; FHL microfilm 2,342,367.

• "United States Census, 1940," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VB98-R7J : accessed 12 March 2018), Amy B H Greenwell in household of Arthur L Greenwell, Tract H-19, South Kona Judicial District, Representative District 2, Hawaii, Hawaii Territory, United States; citing enumeration district (ED) 1-74, sheet 3B, line 59, family 63, Sixteenth Census of the United States, 1940, NARA digital publication T627. Records of the Bureau of the Census, 1790 - 2007, RG 29. Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, 2012, roll 4583.

• "Hawaii, Honolulu Passenger Lists, 1900-1953," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9Z-B33Q : 30 December 2014), Amy Greenwell, 1941; citing Ship , NARA microfilm publication A3422 (Washington D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

• Amy B.H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden

• Kona Historical Society - Amy Greenwell and Her Garden