[2]: 53 She was considered Kamehameha I's third favorite wife[1]: 11  and served as female Governor of Maui, an act unheard of at the time in the western world, but common in Hawaiian history.

During her early childhood her father Kekuamanoha helped Kahekili conquer the island of Oahu, and was the chief responsible for the capture and execution of its King, Kahahana, who was his own brother-in-law.

When Maui forces under Kalanikūpule, Kahekili's son and regent in his absence, lost to Kamehameha I at the Battle of Kepaniwai, Kalola along with her family tried to flee to Oahu.

Her second marriage didn't last long, and she remarried to Kahōʻanokū Kīnaʻu, the eldest surviving legitimate son of Kamehameha by his wife Peleuli.

Tradition tells of a story, recorded down by John Papa ʻĪʻī, that once while traveling with Kīnaʻu from Honolulu to Waikīkī, an offering of fishes were made to the couples by Kinopu from Moehonua's fishpond in Kālia.

[11] Her fourth husband had absolutely no power and served no post under Kaʻahumanu, although he had help lead an army of a thousand soldier to Kauai with Hoapili and Kaikioʻewa to assist her brother Kalanimoku and her son Kahalaiʻa put down the Humehume uprising in 1824.

[13]: 36 But like many females of rank, she became accustomed to Western dress and may have become self-conscious about her weight and thought of eating less poi, so her clothes could sit better.

This came at the cost of lowering the status and right of Hawaiian women, and subsequent generations' only notion of being a woman was to follow their subservient Puritanic sisters.

The angry Wahinepio likewise forbade any to enter her house who was not skilful in dancing, referring to the pagan hula forbidden by the missionaries.

Reverend Richard tells of a change of heart by Wahinepio, in an account involving a Hawaiian girl Leoiki under her care.

She had attracted the eyes of Captain William Buckle of the British whaleship Daniel IV, who resolved to have her board his vessel.

She pleaded to be spared, but Wahinepio allow her to be taken for the payment of sixteen doubloons, valued at ten dollars each, and Leoiki was taken on board for seven months, according to Richard's as a slave.

And that Leoiki, instead of being sold, married Captain Buckle and had a son with him, born on February 5, 1826, as a British citizen on board the Daniel IV.

The boy was named William Wahinepiʻo Kahakuhaʻakoi Buckle in honor of her, and he served in King Kalakaua's privy council and was the first warden of Oahu prison.

Leoiki's granddaughter Jane Kahakuwaiaoao Keakahiwalani Buckle Clark was a lady-in-waiting of Queen Liliʻuokalani during her 1895 imprisonment in ʻIolani Palace.

[17] In 1826, an epidemic of whooping cough and bronchitis swept across Hawaii, claiming the lives of many Hawaiians who lack natural immunity to the disease.

Her grief weakened her constitution even further, and added with the rapid cultural change Hawaii due to the arrival of the missionaries, she succumbed to the epidemic.