First, there's the matter of how to properly pronounce "Barrette," as in Fort Barrette Road in Kapolei.

Originally, the family pronounced it Buh-rette, Louisa Cooper said.

"However, this is the story in my family," Cooper said. "When my grandfather went to West Point, whoever it was who was giving them commands when they were all young cadets called him Barrette (say it like 'parrot'), and so it stuck."

Cooper, who's now 77 and lives in Lanikai, was amazed to see a picture of her grandfather, Brig. Gen. John D. Barrette, on the front page of The Advertiser in April.

The photo accompanied a story about a renaming controversy involving efforts to change the name of Fort Barrette Road to Kualaka'i — the name of a Hawaiian trail that existed long before in the same area.

A resolution advocating the name change made it through the state House, but was deferred in a Senate committee with the recommendation that the state Office of Veterans Services and Department of Hawaiian Homelands work it out.

Cooper, who was born in Hawai'i, never met her grandfather — or maybe did, briefly, when she was a toddler. He died in 1934.

Barrette graduated with the Class of 1885 at West Point. In France during World War I, Barrette commanded the American Artillery School at Saumur, according to John D. Bennett, who wrote about Barrette in The Coast Defense Journal.

In 1921, Barrette was assigned as commander of the Hawaiian Coast Artillery District. He also briefly commanded the old foursquare Hawaiian Division at Schofield Barracks.

In honor of his military career, the coastal defense gun emplacement in Kapolei was named Fort Barrette in 1934. The road name came later.

Cooper, who remembers being at a gate dedication at Fort Barrette when she was young, is among those who would like to see the road keep its current name. "It would be nice," she said. "It's a family member. That part's always nice."