Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii, died on January 20, 1891, while visiting in California. President Benjamin Harrison ordered the United States Navy and United States Army to conduct a state funeral in San Francisco. The funeral attracted an estimated 100,000 spectators who lined the streets to watch the cortege pass. When the United States military escorted his body back to Honolulu, no one knew Kalākaua had died. The homecoming celebration that Honolulu had been planning for their monarch was replaced by funeral preparations. He received a second state funeral in the throne room of Iolani Palace, entirely in the Hawaiian language, and was laid to rest at the Royal Mausoleum of Hawaii. News reports stated that the Honolulu funeral cortege was so massive it took 75 minutes for its entirety to pass any given point.
Death
King Kalākaua, the last king of Hawaii, sailed for California aboard the USS Charleston on November 25, 1890. Accompanying him were his friends and . The account given by his sister and heir-apparent Liliuokalani is that he told her on November 22 that he intended to travel to Washington, D.C. to discuss the McKinley Tariff. She had been bedridden three weeks with her own health issues, was already aware he was suffering from ill health, and begged him not to go. In his absence, she once again was named Princess Regent as she had been during Kalākaua's 1881 world tour.
The king checked into the Palace Hotel on December 5. During the next month in California, he met with Hawaii's Minister to the United States , and traveled up and down the coast visiting with friends. On January 5, 1891, he suffered a stroke while visiting the olive ranch of Ellwood Cooper outside Santa Barbara, and returned to San Francisco. Kalākaua fell into a coma in his suite on January 18. He died on January 20, surrounded by Macfarlane, Baker, Claus Spreckels, Reverend and Mrs. J. Sanders Reed. Admiral George Brown, Charles Reed Bishop, his handmaiden Kalua, and his valet Kahikina, Mrs. Swan, Consul and Mrs. David Allison McKinley, and Dr. George W. Woods, surgeon of the United States Pacific fleet, Lieut. Dyer, Godfrey Rhodes, Judge Hart, Senator George E. Whitney, Mrs. Price. The cause of death, as listed by US Navy officials, was that the king had died from Bright's Disease (inflammation of the kidneys).
Newspapers in the United States were announcing it by the next day. The Evening Star in Washington D. C. ran a 4-column coverage on his death, and a recap of his reign. He subsequently received two state funerals, one in San Francisco and the second in Honolulu. The news of his death would not be known in Hawaii until his body arrived on January 29.
Funeral in San Francisco (January 22) Kalākaua's body was embalmed at the mortuary of Trinity Episcopal Church in San Francisco, where he lay in state. Acting on behalf of President Benjamin Harrison, the United States Navy and United States Army assumed full responsibility for funeral arrangements, including guarding the casket inside the church. He was to be accorded full military honors, and the military was given charge of transporting the body back to Hawaii.
On January 22, the day of the funeral, all federal, state and municipal government offices closed, as did many San Francisco businesses. General John Gibbon oversaw security, and San Francisco police were brought in to handle the hoards of people who jammed the area around the church in hopes of being allowed inside. San Francisco Mayor George Henry Sanderson was in charge of arranging the invitations and requested that attendees meet at the Palace Hotel and travel in groups to the services by carriage. Attendees responding to Sanderson's invitation were heads of commerce, trade organizations, foreign and domestic government representatives of all levels, trade unions, the court system on all levels, and representatives of civic, fraternal and social organizations.
Rev. E. B. Spaulding, rector of St. John's Episcopal Church read from 1 Corinthians15:20–55. "But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." Rev. J. Sanders Reed conducted the services. At the end of the clergy messages, the choir sang the hymn "Rock of Ages".