Anna Leialoha Lindsey-Perry-Fiske
Year Inducted: 2009
Anna Ranch | Hawai'i
Anna was the fifth generation of her family to ranch on the same property in Waimea on Hawai’i Island. She was the daughter of William and Mary Rose Lindsey and although she was the only girl of their children, she was treated no differently than her brothers, and learned to rope, ride, and do ranch work as a young child. As Anna said in her biography; “I never call myself a cowgirl, I’m a cowboy – doing a man’s work on the ranch, riding and lassoing and doing all the things a man does.”
Upon the death of her father in 1939, Anna took over the Lindsey Ranch and renamed it Anna Ranch. She soon discovered the ranch was near bankruptcy and worked tirelessly to pull it out of debt. In 1968 Anna was named “Career Woman of the Year” by the Hawai’i Federation of Business and Professional Women for her success as a rancher. She was also honored by the Hawai’i Livestock Show and Sales Committee in 1984 for being the “top buyer for two decades.”
Anna was an excellent horsewoman and in her lifetime she was an outstanding jockey, pä’ü rider, horse trainer, and “cowboy.” She was also innovative as a rancher introducing new breeds to cattle to Hawai’i and was in the forefront of using new techniques and herbicides to rid her pastures of noxious weeds. Anna was also a fundraiser and started a pageant called “Old Hawai’i on Horseback” as a way to support the Hawai’i Heart Association. For her efforts she was honored by Daniel Akaka on the floor of Congress in 1978.
Anna rode and continued her ranch work well into her 80s and prior to her death in 1995 she put her home and one hundred and ten acres of her pasture land into a charitable trust to preserve a piece of ranching history for future generations. Anna Ranch is on the State and National Register of Historic Places and still a working ranch dedicated to the memory of this remarkable woman and the Lindsey family’s contribution to the history of ranching in Hawai’i.