Kalanianaʻole's father was a lesser chief of the island of Maui named George Kaleiwohi Kaʻauwai (1843–1883) and his wife (Elizabeth's mother) was Ulalia Muolo Keaweaheulu Laʻanui (1848–1911).

Her grandfather was early Hawaiian statesman Zorobabela Kaʻauwai while William Hoapili Kaʻauwai, the first ordained Hawaiian Anglican priests, and his wife High Chiefess Mary Ann Kiliwehi (daughter of Liliha), who both accompanied Queen Emma on her visit to Queen Victoria in the 1860s, were her aunt and uncle.

For two years she and Kūhiō traveled in Europe and South Africa as wealthy "nobility" and were usually recognized as royals even though the Kingdom had been overthrown.

As time passed her husband lost his feeling of bitterness and wanted to be back in the middle of the action in the Territory of Hawaii.

One would hesitate to call her fat, she was just big, sumptuos, bearing her splendid proportions with the remarkable poise that had already been noticed in Hawaiian women, only more magnificently.

Her bare shoulders were described as beautiful, the pose of her head majestic, with heavy fine dark hair that showed bronze lights in its wavy mass.

She was superbly gowned in silk that had a touch of purple or lilac about it, just the tone for her full black, calm eyes and war, tawny skin.

[10] She also was an influential leader in the Hawaii suffragist movement and traveled around the islands teaching local women about their rights to vote.