Daniel C. "Danny" Otholt, 54, a Honolulu musician known as a versatile jazz guitarist and singer, died May 17 in Kaiser Hospital.
"He loved to play music," recalled his brother John. "He enjoyed making people happy with music. That was his goal. That's what he enjoyed about playing music."
Danny was the oldest of seven children. "He kind of was the leader of the family, and everybody honored him," his brother said.
John Otholt recalled Danny was playing in bars at age 16, after having learned guitar in his early teens. After leaving home at 18 and going on his own, he was drafted and served as an Army medic in Vietnam, something he rarely discussed, his brother said.
Born in Honolulu and a graduate of Kamehameha Schools, he performed at Trappers in the Hyatt Regency Waikiki with pianist Betty Loo Taylor in the early 1990s. His credits also include engagements at John Dominis and Trattoria restaurants, Hank's Place in Kaimuki and the Imperial Hawaii Hotel.
His earlier bookings, as a member of the group The Three of Us, included the Sheraton-Waikiki, Top of the Ilikai, JB's White Elephant supper club in the Colony Surf Pavilion Hotel, Russell's Rowboat, Cinerama Reef Hotel, Outrigger Hotel, Hilton Hawaiian Village and Kuilima Hotel on the North Shore. Additionally, he played in Las Vegas, Los Angeles and other places.
He also is survived by companion Gayle Bonham; sons Timothy Otholt and Anthony Lee; mother Elnora O'Neill; sisters Kahana Smith, Lorna-Lei Love, Nina Weaver, Nona Haberman and Helen Kalili; and one grandson.
Services: 11 a.m. Wednesday at Diamond Head Mortuary. Call after 9 a.m. Inurnment 10:30 a.m. June 1 in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Punchbowl. The family requests aloha attire.
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