Aloha 'Oe to our mother, Evangeline Faustina "Tina" Sitton, 98, who passed on August 14, 2021 at Kalama Heights in Kihei, Maui, Hawaii. Tina was born December 18, 1922 in Honolulu to Frank Gulstan Van Gieson, Sr. and Silvina Pauline Gomes Van Gieson. Raised in Ewa Beach, she attended Roosevelt High School, and was studying at the University of Hawaii when the Japanese planes bombed Pearl Harbor.
During World War II, Tina joined the Women's Air Raid Defense (WARD), a civilian organization working with the Army Air Signal Corps at Fort Shafer, which plotted radar sightings of aircraft over the Hawaiian Islands. In 1944, Tina met our late father, then 1st Lieutenant, Kenneth Spotswood Sitton of Knoxville, TN. They married on August 6, 1945. After the war, she became an active member of Daughters of Hawaii. Ken began a career with Pan American Airways. Tina and Ken became world travelers; frequently visiting ohana in Hawaii; and retired in Salem SC. After Ken died, Tina returned to Hawaii permanently in 2013.
Tina outlived her sister, Sylvia Underwood, brother, Frank Van Gieson, Jr., and sister, Geraldine Klein. Three children survive her: Dabney Van Liere and Clifton D. Sitton of Anchorage, AK, and John W. Sitton of Arlington, VA. She also has six grandchildren: Jason Cannelos, James "Adrian" Cannelos, Cathleen Mehelich, Kenneth Sitton, John Thomas Sitton, Samantha Sitton, and Michael Van Buskirk; plus six great-grandchildren.
