Before there was Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies there was Han Sung Barry.

My mother came to Hawaii when she was about eighteen years old, she was the oldest of four children. She was sent to Hawaii to work and send money home so her brother could go to college. My mother was more than happy to do that as she was an adventurous soul. When her younger brother heard she was leaving Korea he ran all the way to the pier to convince her not to leave. He was too late as her boat had already departed. Her older brother graduated at the top of his class from Yokohama University and later became Vice Minister of Commerce for South Korea. The older brother's wife was killed in a ferry accident. The younger brother went to the dock each day to see if they had found her body. It was very cold and he contracted pneumonia and was bedridden for two years before he passed away.

My father was a orphan and came to Hawaii from North Korea in 1919. My brother Harry, the Mayor of the Big Island, had an opportunity to go to Korea two years ago and tried to find my fathers family. The South Korean Government tried their best but were unable to locate his family.

I was born on July 12, 1936, the eighth child of ten. The oldest sister died when she was six and the oldest boy when he was an infant. We lived in a one bedroom old house in the forest with a outhouse, water tank and no electricity.

My father worked for the sugar plantation and on the side had a vegetable and egg business. My mother raised us and went into the lauhala weaving business to raise more money for the family. I worked weaving lauhala from 3rd grade to one year after graduating from Hilo High School. We would work after school until 10 in the evening making lauhala mats, 7 days a week. I used to bake for the family and made my first cookies when my oldest brother, Frank, volunteered to serve in the Army during the Korean War. We had a old oven that fit over the kerosene stove. The front window was broken so that I had a cardboard over it. I had to sprinkle water on the cardboard often so that it would not burn. I baked the cookies and sent several batches to Frank, in tin cans. He won the bronze star and later became an electrical engineer for Boeing Aircraft. He met my mother's older brother when he was in Korea.

I left to go to college in 1956 my mother went into the kim chee business and ran it until she passed away at the age of 82 in 1984. Although she could not read or write English she became a very successful business woman. Everyone in my family went to college and graduated. My parents believed that was very important.

I went to Los Angeles City College and later graduated from Los Angeles State College and became a teacher in the Los Angeles City system. I had no financial help from my family while I was going to school and worked and lived with a couple of different families. I cleaned, cooked and was a Nanny to the children. The last year of college I got a small apartment and worked at Bullocks Department store.

Jim and I met in Los Angeles and were married in 1960. Our daughter, Kathryn and son Jamie were both born in Los Angeles. We both taught in Los Angeles until coming to Hawaii on June 21, 1965. We settled in Honokaa where they had positions for both of us. I taught in the Elementary School and Jim at Honokaa High School. We picked Honokaa because there was a football Head Coaching job there for Jim.

In 1978 there was a baking contest sponsored by the local Macadamia Nut Company. The recipes were to be original and you had to use macadamia nuts in your recipe. The contest was judged by Famous Amos. My cookie won first prize. After winning the contest I knew that I could do something with it. I worked on my recipe for three months before the contest, constantly fine tuning it. My husband, children and fellow teachers helped as tasters.

After some research and soul searching I decided to go into the cookie business. My husband and children were supportive of my new venture. I remember my mother saying "you have to sell a lot of cookies to make up for your teaching salary." I was looking for any signs to tell me I was doing the right thing. One day my horoscope said "This should be an extremely productive period for you if you don't let your feelings get the best of you. You'll be confronted with certain upsetting situations but if you use your keen sense of reasoning everything will work out to your advantage. You are ready for changes in business matters. Don't let anyone hold you down." I still carry that clipping in my wallet.

We moved to Kona in 1979 where we knew it would be the best place to start a business. I taught at Kealakehe School for a year until I was able to find a place for my business. My husband taught mathematics and became the Football Coach at Konawaena High School where he won six consecutive Championships from 1980 to 1985 before retiring at the beginning of 1986.

1979 was a difficult year to find a good location in Kona. There was only one viable location we were interested in. That was the Kona Inn. The owners of the Kona Inn were transforming this Kona landmark into a shopping center. Having no previous business experience I had trouble convincing them that I should have a space. I decided that I would make cookies for them every week so that they would become familiar with my product. The strategy worked and I secured a space, 429 square feet, in the Kona Inn Shopping Center. We opened Mrs. Barry's Kona Cookies on August 8, 1980. We stayed in the Kona Inn for 19 years. As people tried and liked our cookies, they told their friends and the most powerful advertising "word of mouth" became our road to success. Many of our customers tell us they have been instructed not to come home unless they have our cookies.

In 1997 we felt that we needed more space and began searching the Kona area for a new location. We were very fortunate to locate a space in the Kaloko Industrial Park within a block of Costco and close to Sam Choy's restaurant. Our base customer had always been local people visiting Kona, especially Honolulu people. Our new location is 3 miles South of the airport in the Kaloko Light Industrial Park. This is much more accessable for our customers as they can drive up to and park near our front door. Everyone on the Island of Hawaii comes to Costco and many of them stop in to buy cookies at our shop. Our shop was more accessible for local Kona folks as almost everyone goes to Costco. We closed our Kona Inn shop in May of 1999. Our new shop has lots of room, close to 4500 square feet and has become as successful as our Kona Inn Shop.

My son, Jamie and daughter, Kathryn have worked most of their working lives in the business. Jamie seems to want to carry on the business after I retire and he has been spending more and more time in the business. This has allowed me to have more free time to work in my garden and look after our Granddaughter, Sarah. I take my granddaughter to Hula twice a week so she will appreciate and learn Hawaiian culture.