Raymond Kane, Hawaiian slack-key guitarist and singer, died yesterday at 6:40 p.m. at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, his family said today. He was 82.

Sometimes called Hawaii's "slack key ambassador," Kane was born in 1925 in Koloa, Kaua'i, and grew up in Nanakuli.

He received a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts in 1987 and a Na Hoku Hanohano Lifetime Achievement Award in 2003.

"(He) had so many, many friends all over the world," said Elodia Kane, his wife.

Kane's cousin, "Aunty" Genoa Keawe, died on Monday at 89.

Elodia Kane said her husband suffered from respiratory problems for decades and that it sometimes affected his work.

"That's where the music came in," she said.