Christine Polydouris

ALBANY Mrs. Christine Thomas (Thomopoulos) Polydouris, 85 years old, passed away of Alzheimer's and lung congestion. Christina died on September 25, 2005, 9:30 p.m. in Latham, North Colonie, N.Y. at her home, the Villa American Kalamata-Lagadia overlooking Shaker Bay on a hill above the Mohawk River. Christina was born in Salem, Mass. on August 2, 1920. She was the daughter of Demetrios and Constantina Thomas (Thomopoulos). The name was legally changed before her brother Theodore was accepted at M.I.T. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology). Christine was born at home near downtown Salem and eventually the family moved to their home on Geneva Street in 1929, one month before the Great Depression hit. The family lived in the two-family house and rented one flat. The house was sold by Christine's mother after the death of her husband. Two siblings died in infancy from the influenza of 1917-1920, the first Theodore and Christine. Four children survived, Theodore, who died three years ago; Constantine, who died in 1970, a World War II Army Air Corps pilot; and her sister, Helen Macheras. Christine attended the Saltonstall School K-8, two blocks from her home, and Salem High School, Class of 1938. She graduated from Salem Teachers College in 1943 with her sister Helen. Christine took one year off to work for her family because of the stroke her father suffered. She worked at Lally's clothing store in downtown Salem as a sales girl (no associates at that time). Summers, she was an executive secretary for the chief counsel at Sylvania Electric Products in Salem as well as working one summer in the then-new Pentagon in Arlington, Va. She stayed only one month since Washington, D.C. in those days had no air conditioning. Christine also worked on Long Island for one month. She missed the cool ocean breezes of the North Shore and the ocean front parks of Salem, like Salem Willows and Forest River Park, the parks she learned to swim at during her youth. Christine was a tour guide at the Witch House one summer in Salem. The historic home was the residence of three women who were executed for witchcraft. Christine would do the housework at home, cooking and cleaning while the boys and sister Helen were more athletic. Christine did enjoy basketball in high school and college and wanted to major in foreign languages, that she and her sister excelled in in high school. She understood, spoke and wrote Modern Greek, having been tutored at home with her siblings on the dining room table twice a week. Christine took Latin, German (more important then with the rise of Hitler) and French. Salem Teachers College had no language majors but did have business. Both sisters majored in business and received baccalaureates in science in business education. There was only one building then, along with the student teaching grammar school next door. Christine worked in the bookstore. Her first teaching job was at South Royalton High School in Vt. She became certified in three states: Mass., Vt. and N.Y. She taught and wrote shorthand, a lost art. Business education or commercial education, as it was sometimes called. She taught at South Royalton during the 1943-44 school year. That old building is now Vermont Law School. The city girl dated a dairy farmer and became engaged. During World War II, farmers and priests were exempt from the armed forces. She broke the engagement when she took a teaching job at Bennington High School, Bennington, Vt., 1944-45. She played field hockey against Carroll Channing when the high school faculty played against the Bennington College girls. Christine lived with a Greek-American family in Bennington. Helen had taken a teaching job at Highland Falls, N.Y. High School so Christine jumped at a teaching offer from the village of Florida, N.Y. nearby. They both dated West Point cadets and attended dances at the Point. Christine became engaged a second time to the principal! She broke off the second engagement. She taught at Florida High School 1945-46, then at Amesbury High School, Amesbury, Mass. which she commuted to by car from Salem, Mass. where she lived with her family. In 1952, she received her master's of science degree from Boston University School of Education. She commuted on Saturdays for two years by train with her friend Tina Leftes of Salem for classes at BU. Christine took some additional courses at Russell Sage of Albany, N.Y. Certification. Marriage brought her to Albany, in 1953. She became engaged to Nicholas J. Polydouris after one date. He was visiting his relatives in Ipswich, Mass., the Nikas families, after completing business in Boston for his private company, the Albany Linen Service. They met at a private house party in Salem and were married in November of 1953 in Salem. They honeymooned at the Greenbrier Hotel, Greenbrier, W.Va., motoring from Albany and visiting her married sister Helen in Covington, Va. Exactly nine months later, a son John was born at Albany Medical, her only child because Christine had a hysterectomy afterward. She had been told not to come home if it were not a boy by her mother-in-law. While she was pregnant, they lived on Elm Street, Downtown Albany and, before John was born, they bought a house on Western Avenue, two blocks from Albany High School. An old school man, her husband bought the house on his own. She went to substitute at Albany High for one week and was called into the office on Friday by the principal, Mr. Lincoln. He had walked by her classes and was perplexed as to why the students were quiet with a substitute. He asked her if she would like a permanent teaching job - she mentioned she had a small boy and she would consult with Nicholas. She returned and accepted the job she kept for 25 years, from 1955-1980, and was the first Greek-American teacher in the Capital District. She worked for the New York State Education Department for a few summers supervising the correction of regents exams. Christine was the top business teacher at Albany High and the best dressed as well. She loved shopping at the Country Miss, Flah's, Solomon's, Dahl's and Kral's. Her husband cancelled her store credit cards once! After the death of her mother-in-law, Christine and Nicholas almost divorced, but stayed together for John. Their bond of Holy Matrimony was tried but was unbroken and they were faithful only to each other. Her husband Nicholas took care of her for 20 years with Alzheimer's, especially the hardest last ten years. Nicholas believed in the vow, in sickness and in health till death do us part. In 1952, Christine motored throughout America in a brand new Plymouth Convertible with three other teachers from Amesbury. They went to Calif., Ore., Mont., Alberta, British Columbia, Mexico and some 40 states and provinces and many national parks. She said she liked home the most. They left Amesbury the day after school ended in June 1952 and returned the day before it started in September of 1952. Christine continued to travel with her son to Greece and Cyprus and throughout the USA, the Caribbean and Canada. In 1974, she and John had 1st class Eurail passes and traveled Europe by train and boat for two and one-half months, returning because of the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, an island they were expected to visit. She did visit Cyprus in 1979 with John for two weeks to show solidarity with the Cypriot people. She went to the Tomb of Makarios to pay respects. Christine visited Greek Macedonia, the birthplace of Alexander the Great, and enjoyed the beautiful islands especially Cephalonia, Rhodes, Corfu and Kalamata and the village of Lagadia which her parents left at ages 17 and six. She was a great benefactor of St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church and donated the chandelier above the altar and a gold communion cup and spoon with her husband. She was a past member of the American Association of University Women and held meetings at her home. Her legacy is her students, the creme de la creme, the best secretarial students of Albany. She celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in November 2003 at St. Sophia, one month before Nicholas died.
She is survived by her son, John of Latham; a sister, Helen Macheras, Marblehead, Mass.; sisters-in-law, Alice Metropoulos of Pittsfield, Mass. and Maria Thomas of Haverhill, Mass.; nieces and nephews, Janice Kostopoulos, Marblehead, Dr. William Metropoulos, Springfield, Mass., Matina Metropoulos, Pittsfield, Constance Welch, Marblehead, Dean Macheras, Monroe, La., Damon Thomas, Esq., Haverhill, Stacey Kirby, Billerica, Mass., Leslie Beauregard, West Newbury, Mass., John Polydouris, AG. Stephanos, Greece, Efthemia Vafiades, Anexi, Greece and Fay Stavrides, Athens, Greece; great-nieces and nephews, Andrew, George, Nicholas, Fotini and Politimi Polydouris, Spiros and Katerina Stavrides; first cousins, Judge Theodore Thomopoulos of Neo Psyhiko and Nicholas Thomopoulos of Paleo Psyhiko, all of Greece.
Funeral services will be held Saturday 10:30 a.m. at St. Sophia Greek Orthodox Church, 440 Whitehall Road, Albany. Relatives and friends may also call Friday 4 to 8 at the Tebbutt Funeral Home, 633 Central Avenue, Albany. A Trisagion memorial service will be held Friday 7:30 p.m. Interment will be in Graceland Cemetery, Albany.