Distant Yet Close Siblings
Michael Peter Kazaras was born on September 28, 1940, in North Bronx, New York, and lives in Kirkland, Washington, with his wife Lisa. Michael’s sister, Joann Veloudis, also born in the Bronx in 1942, lives in the Athens suburb Holargos with her husband Stamos. Joann’s son, Evangelos “Evan” lives in San Jose, California, and daughter Maria lives near her uncle Michael in Bothell, Washington. It was a special opportunity to have all of them together for this interview on November 18, 2022. The family tree below provides a visual image of Michael and Joann’s ancestors
Their great grandparents were the Patralis and Stavrides families who lived in Istanbul (Constantinople) and Smyrna, Turkey. Their paternal grandparents were Michael and Pagona (nee Hagidakis) Kazaras. Their maternal grandparents were Christos and Pagona “Penny” (nee Patralis) “Neneka” Stavridis.
In the early 1900s the four grandparents came to the United States from Karabourna, located between Cesme and Izmir in Asia Minor. Michael Kazaras (born 1884) worked briefly in the steel mills in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. The family later settled in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens, New York, along with a large concentration of Greek families. Michael worked in a restaurant there and participated in the active Karabournian society with events including dancing and live music. His wife Pagona was born in 1890 and married Michael at age 13 in the United States in 1911.
Michael and Joann’s parents, John (born 1917) and Teresa (nee Stavridis) met at the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral in New York City. Michael received his middle name, not from his father as is common among Greek families, but from one of the nine brothers of his grandfather Kazaras. Thus, there are many descendants named Michael and Peter honoring their ancestors.
While spending time with their grandparents, it was “all Greek” with large family gatherings, having dinner together, playing cards and sleeping on the couch. Although John and Teresa grew up speaking Greek, their children spoke all English. Teresa’s mother “Neneka” provided the Greek influence for her grandchildren until she moved back to Greece and their Greek lessons ended.
Teresa was primarily a homemaker and a very athletic women, often doing handstands, swimming, diving and looked like a much younger woman. In later life she moved to live near Michael and Lisa and died at the age of 101. Michael describes his father, John, as a pleasant and trustworthy man who got along well with others, took care of his parents, and followed all the rules. He worked in the Post Office mostly at night and had a strong interest in business. With a couple of years at City College and learning on his own, he also sold insurance and kept the books for some Greek business owners.
MICHAEL’S STORY
John and Teresa were not regular church goers and much of their children’s’ Greek Orthodox experiences came from their grandmother who was very religious. Michael was sent to nearby Methodist and Presbyterian churches but always identified as Greek Orthodox. He took some Greek lessons from a teacher friend of the family, but he forgot most of the language until he spent six months in Greece in 1965.
When Michael was in the fourth grade, the family moved to City Island, a small, boat building area with big shipyards and about 5,000 people. It was like a step back in time as his classes were in a one-room, brick schoolhouse with about 20-30 students. After successfully testing to meet the entry requirements, he attended the Bronx High School of Science and “got to be pretty smart.” According to Michael, that school has produced seven or eight Nobel prize winners though Michael was not among them. He then studied at Cornell University and the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.
Between their third and fourth years, medical school students were given six months to have some outside experience. Michael had developed an interest in pediatrics as he was impressed with those he met in that field who matched his own personality. During a brief elevator ride with the head of his department, Michael expressed his interest in going to Greece. The department head said “I know somebody there” and it was a done deal. Michael spent the next six months studying with Spiro Doxiades, an internationally known pediatrician in the Athens Children’s Hospital in the suburb of Agia Sofia. Plus, he was living with his maternal grandmother and after a couple of months became comfortable conversing in Greek. After medical school, he went to the University of California at San Francisco for his two-year residency. Rather than being drafted during the Vietnam War-era, he benefited from the Berry Plan, a program that allowed physicians to defer obligatory military service until they had completed medical school and residency training. He entered the Army as Captain and spent four years in Germany. Then, with friends in Seattle, Washington, he moved there (a nice city to live in rather than among the 13 million in the New York area). He joined a four-person practice for two years, then established his own office in Kirkland, just a few blocks from his home. Fully retired by 2017, he spends time caring for the large property surrounding his home and creates unusual wood art projects by hand using a chisel. Lisa, (nee Chenoweth), now retired from her nursing career and Michael were married at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle in 1987. She remembers being excited about learning the faith and joining his family.
Their children are Alexandra, a doctor in New Mexico, John, a nurse in Seattle and Nicholas, also in Seattle, Andrew a social work student in New York, and Demetre a mathematician in Durham, North Carolina. There are three grandchildren.
JOANN’S STORY
Joann Veloudis (nee Kazaras) was born in 1942 and, after two years of high school in the Bronx, attended New Rochelle High School for two years. She finished her studies at Wagner College on Staten Island, a Lutheran College, where she was the token Orthodox Christian. In New York, she worked for Pan American Airlines for two years, then for Pacific Airlines in San Francisco, California, for four years. Having visited Greece almost every summer, Joann decided to live there for a while and “loved it.” Just before deciding to return to New York, she met her future husband, Stamos Veloudis, and has been there for almost 50 years. They also enjoy time at a summer home on the island of Tinos. Initially, her time in Greece was very difficult with the Junta in power, with tanks on the streets, and with gunshots and tear gas being used. She remembers people seeking safety inside the stores and celebrations when the junta fell. She describes Greece as struggling to recover from the 2008 economic crisis, dealing with the threats from Turkey but receiving support from the United States, due in part with the possible discovery of oil.
Joann’s children, while raised in Greece, were born in the United States to insure they would have dual citizenship. When they finished high school, Evan and Maria came to Washington to attend college. They chose Western Washington University in Bellingham, Washington, as it seemed the right size for them and not too far away from their uncle.
LOOKING BACK
Joann has many memories of her childhood. Her maternal grandfather was rather aloof and unaffectionate while her mother was more demonstrative. She enjoyed spending time with her grandparents but had difficulty relating to her paternal grandfather until she became fluent with the language when living in Greece. It was then that she learned how sweet and nice he was and now realizes how much she had missed as a child speaking only English. Joann remembers being told “Na sevraso” (I will boil you) or “tha fax xilo” (I will hit you with a stick) as loving warnings from her family. Michael’s father said, “he’d rather be rich and healthy than sick and poor.”
Joann remembers feeling special and proud as a Greek child in the Bronx where everybody came from different ethnic backgrounds. With exposure to his grandparents, Michael, even as a third generation Greek, identified as “different” from other children. It is easier for Michael than Joann to separate their Greek ethnicity from their Orthodox Christianity as his parents were not active in their Greek Orthodox faith.
Joann’s children are among a group of Greek immigrants with much different ideas and preferences from those who came in the early 1900s. For the most part, Greek American culture is based on the village experiences of music, dancing and ethnic and religious traditions. Recently, Greece has experienced a “brain drain” as immigrants, like many from other countries, are highly educated, and more cosmopolitan in their thinking. Many find the Church and fraternal groups archaic and unappealing. They have almost nothing in common with Greeks who have lived in America for many years. Her son, Evan, is a physicist and a musician. As a member of Mythos Band, he frequently entertains at weddings, baptisms and social events where he finds the attendance of Greeks is declining. He sees recent immigrants as more interested in finding “angels” to support a startup company than following what they view as a Greek “village culture.” Her daughter, Maria, is a nurse at Evergreen Hospital and is active in the St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church in Seattle.
The Kazaras story is unique with brother and sister presently living in separate countries. It illustrates the various cultural assimilations of four generations living in the United States.
By John and Joann Nicon, November 2023
VIDEO SEGMENTS
PHOTOGRAPHS
Michael and Joann, 2022
Mother Theresa, Maternal grandmother “Naneka,” Uncle Byron and maternal grandfather Christos,
Family Tree by Joann Veloudis
John and Teresa wedding, 1938
Joann and Michael, July 1949
Joann and Michael with prom dates, Richard and Ann late 1950
Paternal grandfather, Michael Kazaras 1950s
Panagiota Stavridis, date not specified
Michael with paternal grandmother Pagona Kazaras, 1977
Michael with his mother, Teresa 1977
The City Island house
Michael skiing, 1956
Michael college graduation, 1962
Michael in medical school, 1968
Lisa and Michael in Greece, 1990
Joann in City Island, circa 1950
Joann in New Rochelle, New York, circa 1960
Joann with grandmother Panini and her mother Teresa, 1977
Evan, Joann, Stamos, Maria, 2000s
Michael, Evan, Maria and Joanna, 2022
Photos 1 and 19 by John Nicon, all others from the Kazaras family
SOURCES
Video interview by John and Joann Nicon on November 18, 2022