Kawānanakoa was the only child of
Lydia Liliuokalani Kawānanakoa, born during her marriage to Irish-American Dr. William Jeremiah Ellerbrock. She was a descendant of
Aliʻi Kaumualiʻi, the final independent ruler of
Kauaʻi and
Niʻihau. Kawānanakoa was educated at
Punahou School in
Honolulu, the
Shanghai American School in
Shanghai from 1938 to 1939, and
Notre Dame High School in
Belmont, California, from which she graduated in 1943. She attended
Dominican College in
San Rafael, California, from 1943 to 1944, and studied at the
University of Hawaii in 1945.
Line of succession to the throne of Hawaii The Kingdom of Hawaii's last two monarchs,
Kalākaua and
Liliʻuokalani were childless. Because of this, both monarchs named family members as heirs, including Princess Victoria
Kaʻiulani, the daughter of Princess Miriam
Likelike, sister of the two rulers. At the age of six, she was legally adopted by her grandmother, Princess
Abigail Campbell Kawānanakoa, in the Hawaiian tradition of
hānai with the intention that she remain a direct heir to a possible restoration of the kingdom. She is a granddaughter of Prince
David Kawānanakoa, the
hānai adopted son of King Kalākaua. On February 10, 1883, David Kawānanakoa was granted the title of
Prince and style of
His Royal Highness by King Kalākaua through Letters Patent. With the adoption by her grandmother, Abigail became a daughter of Prince Kawānanakoa. Her genealogy firmly establishes her as a member of the Hawaiian royal family. In 1986, she told writer Marilyn Kim that, had the kingdom continued, it was her cousin
Edward A. Kawānanakoa who would have been heir to the Kawānanakoa\Kalākaua lines, as he was the first born of the oldest sibling, but joked that she would be the "power behind the throne." Senator
Daniel Inouye has described Abigail as "a member of the family with the closest blood ties to the Kalākaua Dynasty". Jon M. Van Dyke, a University of Hawaii law professor, states in his book ''Who Owns the Crown Lands of Hawai'i?'' that the Kawānanakoas view themselves as the designated heirs of the Kalākaua line, though none of them have ever claimed an interest in the
Crown Lands. ==Equine endeavors==