Katherine Fillon Skefos' Obituary
KATHERINE FILLON SKEFOS was born November 21, 1923, in the home of her parents, James and Mary Pappas Fillon, 899 Poplar Avenue, Memphis. She attended Guthrie and Maury Elementary Schools and loved walking home in the afternoon past a potato chip factory that sold bags of broken chips to the children for a nickel (only on the days that she didn’t stop by her father’s bakery, Liberty Baking Company, 340 Poplar Avenue, to do “quality control” for the baker, tasting Otto’s donut holes!). She graduated from Humes High School in 1942 where, at a towering five foot two, she played center for the girl’s basketball team.Her formative years were shaped by two “north stars” that guided her for her full 94 years—family and faith. The eldest of three—her brother Nick, two years younger than she, and her “Baby” sister, Cornelia (Varnavas), two years his junior—Katherine was also the first grandchild, and was, in her own words, “spoiled.” In reality, her birth order positioned her as a keystone in an exceptionally interlocked and devoted family that served as her primary and life-long social network. As a young woman, nothing gave her more joy than spending time with parents, siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins, in simple family activities—a Sunday afternoon picnic, a road trip to Clarksdale, Mississippi to visit cousins, or a day of music on the wrap-around porch, with her mother playing the Hawaiian guitar, Aunt Olga (Touliatos), the violin, Aunt Frances (Varnas), the mandolin, and Aunt Sophie (Yavis), only six years her senior, the ukulele.For her, church was an extension of her family, and she was happiest and most at peace in the earthly home of her Heavenly Father. In the 1920’s, her family helped found the Greek Orthodox Church of the Annunciation, then in downtown Memphis, at Third and Poplar, and they participated fully in all church activities. She walked down Poplar every weekday afternoon to spend two hours learning Greek and studying Greek Culture at the school held in a home next door to the Church. She began playing the organ for the church choir at sixteen, and played with only minor interruptions, for nearly fifty years, as her stewardship, until she could no longer make the trek up the stairs to the choir loft. Even in her latter years, she could be seen multiple times a week, walking with determination with her caregiver, to simply light a candle and say a prayer at the church that was her second home.Katherine married her dear husband, Jerry Skefos, in 1950, and along with their beloved sons, Harry (Cathe) and Jimmy, established her own nuclear family. She was a devoted wife and mother, supportive of her husband and sons in all of their chosen endeavors. Sadly, Jerry died in 1976, not ever meeting the grandchildren on whom Katherine, “Yiayia,” doted—Harry’s children: Dr. Chrystan Skefos (Joshua Leasure) and Dr. Nicholas Skefos (Catherine), and Jimmy’s children: Dr. Jerry Skefos and Ms. Katrina Matthews (Timothy). Katherine also leaves behind her precious little sister, Cornelia, now 90 years young, and several beloved cousins, nieces, nephews and godchildren, as well as countless friends.The family wishes to thank all of the caregivers who helped and loved Katherine for so many years—in particular, Lynn Hursey and Jackie Pinson, who spent the most time with her, and who she and her sons considered family.Katherine passed away peacefully, in her sleep, early on May 2, 2018. Visitation will be at Memorial Park Funeral Home, 5668 Poplar Avenue, Memphis, Tennessee, Sunday, May 6th from 5 pm to 7:30 pm, with a Trisagion service at 6:30; and the Funeral Service will be Monday, May 7th, 10 am, with interment to follow at Elmwood Cemetery. The family requests that any donations be made in her memory to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital or Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 573 North Highland Street, Memphis, Tennessee.
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