Mary Tripodes

Mary Tripodes 94, gently passed away on Monday at her home. Mary was born on the Greek island of Icaria to Niketas & Alexandra Tripodis. She emigrated to the United States in 1930 at age 15 to join her family in Chicago. In 1938 she met Jack Tripodes through her activities with other Icarian Greeks. Jack and Mary were married in 1938 and settled in Cleveland where Jack ran a restaurant with his brothers. When the family moved west in 1946 she worked with her husband Jack at the family business, Gus’s BBQ in South Pasadena. She was a founding and lifelong member of St. Anthony Greek Orthodox church in Pasadena, as well as a founding member of the local chapters of the Philoptochos, Daughters of Penelope, and the Pan-Icarian Brotherhood. She helped organize the community’s first Greek language program in 1952 and church festival in 1953. Mary and husband Jack always worked tirelessly together in the kitchen at countless church and community dinners and fundraisers. They were an inseparable couple for 54 years until Jack's passing in 1992. She learned to loom in her 70s and became an accomplished weaver with many of her handicrafts sold at various locations in the Pasadena area as well as church festivals. Her greatest joy was to be surrounded by family and friends usually at a lavish dinner she prepared at home - a practice she continued until the last year of her life. Her ever smiling face and warm, generous heart will be missed. She is survived by her children Virginia (Dino) Lappas, Peter Tripodes, Dr. Nikitas (Dena) Tripodes, grandchildren Andrea & Vincent Lappas, Maria (Eli) Ibrahimzade, Zachary, Marika, & Georgia Tripodes, great-grandchildren Max & Dina Ibrahimzade, brother Marino Tripodis of Chicago, and sisters Minerva Zerlentes of Chicago, and Dorothy (George) Lardis of Warren, Ohio as well as numerous, nieces, nephews, godchildren and cousins. Trisagion services will be Friday December 18, 7:00 PM and funeral services will be on Saturday, December 19, at 1:00 PM both at St. Anthony Greek Orthodox Church, 778 S. Rosemead Blvd., Pasadena, 91107. In lieu of flowers the family requests donations to St. Anthony’s Building Fund.