Godfrey Kehelelani Kainoa, Sr.
Year Inducted: 2015
Kahua Ranch | Hawai'i
Parker Ranch | Hawai'i
Godfrey Kahelelani Kainoa, Sr., was born in North Kohala. The last of ten children born to Johnny and Dinah Kainoa, Godfrey was destined for the life of a cowboy. Already donning spurs as a toddler, he was appropriately nicknamed “Jingles.” As a little guy he was carrying the bucket of nails for fence work on the JK Ranch, his family’s 300 acre Hawaiian Homes ranch at Nienie. Always quick and running at the orders his father had for him, Godfrey learned strong work ethics. Godfrey was fortunate to be raised by a legendary cowboy father, but also had the added privilege of working and riding with the best Kahua cowboys, which included his grandfather, Peter Kainoa, Sr., and his idol, Kimo Hoopai, Sr. At the young age of seven, he was on long cattle drives starting from the green hills of Kahua to the dryland of Kawaihae. At this young age, he was also a jockey on the Kahua Ranch race horse team at Ho’olulu Race Track in Hilo.
At the age of eighteen, Godfrey’s father passed on and he was the natural heir to JK Ranch and the sixty head of mother cows that needed tending. He assumed these responsibilities simultaneously going to work at Kahua Ranch for a short spell.
At a rough and tumble age, Godfrey began working for Parker Ranch in 1972. He went straight to being a cowboy. Walter Stevens offered him a chance to learn from one of the great horsemen and leaders of Parker Ranch. As a skilled horse trainer he had a work string of thirty horses. He was fearless and had the ability to take horses from his bucking string and also use them to work pipi.
Godfrey Kainoa was a big name in the rodeos of the 70’s and 80’s. He mainly excelled in bull and bronc riding, but he always had a good hand with a rope. He was often named “all-around cowboy” in Big Island rodeos. The July 4th Parker Ranch Rodeo and Horse Races were a frequent showcase for his talents. Godfrey usually had a new and special mount each year, often winning the Horseman and Horse of the Year awards.
When the opportunity arose, Parker Ranch was quick to promote him to foreman at the Ke`āmuku and Kohala Divisions. While supervisor, he ran a cow/calf operation of over 10,000 head of cattle. Godfrey loved the opportunity to be a cowboy in his birthplace of Kohala. The insurgence of wild cattle out of the forest ranges of the Kohala Mountains required control, so with his crew and the traps developed by Dougie Cox, over 3,000 head of marketable but feral cattle were brought out of the Kohala forest.
Godfrey spent 28 years of his life on Parker Ranch. In 2003, he returned to his home, Kahua Ranch. He is presently the Livestock Manager at Kahua and still actively maintains JK Ranch. He deserves this recognition as a true paniolo with the art, skill and pride of profession that comes from hard work and the heritage of generations. His legacy will live on in the paniolo culture because many of the young men from his cowboy crews were trained by him and made men by him, by the likes of Godfrey Kahelelani Kainoa Sr., and his many talents.