Anna Tsiongas

Anna (Melliou) Tsiongas, 92, of Bristol, Connecticut and Providence, Rhode Island peacefully passed away on March 5. Anna was predeceased by Nicholas K. Tsiongas to whom she was married for 73 years.

Born in the village of Korifi-Kozani, Greece, she was the youngest of four daughters of the Reverend Demetrios Mellios and Marika Zikou.

Later jokingly referring to herself as “the prettiest girl in the village”, she would often surreptitiously assist her priest father behind the church altar despite not being a boy. She would often say that had she been born a male, she would have become a priest. Religiously devout all her life, she would later become one of the founding members of St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church of Brightwood Road, Bristol.

In the mid and late 1940’s, she survived armed foreign occupation, famine, and civil conflict. Being the youngest daughter and unmarried, she avoided the fate of each of her three sisters who were all widowed during the Greek Civil war.

By 1956, she emigrated to the United States with her husband and three-year-old son, settling in Bristol. She began a working career as a machinist with The Ingraham Company which at the time was across the street from her home. She remained a factory worker for many years

and, after her second child, a daughter, she often worked different shifts from her husband so that one parent was always home with the children. She was a lifetime member of the International Union of Electrical Workers (IUE) and for decades she was an active member of Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church of Waterbury, CT prior to helping found St. Demetrios of Bristol. She was also a past member of the Philoptochos Society.

Anna was renowned both for being a scratch cook of a wide range of Greek food and desserts and a prolific knitter of throws, slippers, and lace doilies. She was not above the occasional prank.

With borrowed money from friends, she and her husband bought their first home in 1960, a three-tenement house, and they went on to become small landlords eventually owning three additional tenement buildings.

Having gone only as far as the sixth grade, she was able to send both her children to college and graduate school, and to contribute as well to her grandchildren’s education.

Anna is survived by her daughter Mary Tsiongas (Andrew Comas) of New York City, her son Dr. K. Nicholas Tsiongas (Anna Sibley) of Providence and ex-daughter-in-law Dr. Carol Herrmann of Rhode Island. Her four grandchildren—Amalia (Junior Arnulfo Gallego Suel), Madgalena, and

Tessa Tsiongas, all of Philadelphia, and Edith Comas of Manhattan were the loves of her life and they cherished their yiayia in return.

She also leaves behind her older sister Rita Pappas and brother-in-law Angelo Pappas of Bristol and several nieces and nephews.

Services ill be held at Saint Demetrios Church on Wednesday March 12 with calling hour from 9 AM to 10 AM and the funeral liturgy thereafter. They will be followed by burial at West Cemetery, Bristol. In lieu of flowers, donations may be sent to Saint Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church, 31 Brightwood RD, Bristol, CT 06010