Don Ho News

Dayna Ho-Henry, daughter of the late entertainer Don Ho, died of an accidental methamphetamine overdose, the Honolulu medical examiner said.

The 52-year-old Ho-Henry was found dead May 11 less than a week after she helped scatter her father's ashes off Waikiki during a memorial service. The legendary Hawaii crooner died April 14 of heart failure at age 76.

Lab tests confirmed Ho-Henry died of the "toxic effects of methamphetamine" and determined the overdose was accidental, the medical examiner said Monday. The police case, classified as an unattended death, has been closed.

Ho-Henry, the third of Ho's 10 children, was found dead at a friend's home in Waialua on Oahu's North Shore.

Her brother Dwight Ho says it deepens the family's grief to learn how she died.

"Dayna had the gift of mercy," Dwight Ho said. "She knew when someone was hurting, and would come to their aid. She put her life on hold to take care of my grandmother and mother in the final months of their lives.

"She visited my father three or four days a week until his passing and admonished me for not making time to see him more often," he said.

Dwight Ho said his older sister had many strong and pleasant memories of her time with their father and of the time she spent as an entertainer with the Don Ho Show.

"The years she spent dancing for my father were the happiest of her life," Dwight Ho said.

Ho-Henry and Dwight Ho were two of the singer's six children with his first wife, Melvamay Ho, who died in 1999.