Life Dates

June 21, 1934 – December 24, 2020

Biography

Margot Kopsidas was born June 21, 1934 in Washington, DC to parents Marion Calomaris Kopsidas (1913-2005) and John A. Kopsidas (1895-1978). John emigrated to New York City in 1923 from Karya, a village on the Ionian Island of Lefkada. Marion was born in NYC.

Throughout her life, Margot often returned to Greece, visiting Lefkada and her many relatives who had remained. She spent a year of high school in Lefkada and Athens (1948) with her brother Stephen. As an adult she returned with her mother Marion and her two sons, Christopher (b. 1962) and Stephen (b. 1959). Like her mother before her, Margot was an active community volunteer, as a member of Philoptochos, the philanthropic arm of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America, in Chicago as part of the St. Andrew Greek Orthodox Church and in Washington, the Saints Constantine and Helen Greek Orthodox Church. She also served as president of Salvation Army's Women's Auxiliary of Washington, DC in 1994-95.

Her first husband, Angelo Filippas/George Phillips (b. 1931), emigrated to Chicago in 1949 from Drimonas, another village on Lefkada Island with the help of his uncle George Phillips. Known in the family as "Uncle Truman," the elder George had emigrated to Chicago pre-WWI, working at US Steel before founding the Phillips Company, a maker of jellies, preserves and maple syrup. The company began by serving area restaurants and in WWII, it gained a military contract to provide jams/jellies to US Servicemen.

Margot and George were married in D.C. on Oct. 18, 1957. Settling in Chicago, George worked first for the Phillips Company, then as a stock broker, and worked in in manufacturing and hospitality. In 1974 the arranged marriage between George and Margot ended in divorce and, in 1980, George returned to Drimonas; he is now living in Lefkada Town.

With two small boys to raise, Margot began working in public relations, including for the Cook County Hospital and then the Illinois Commerce Commission, sidelining as a Greek cooking instructor - conducting demonstrations at Carson Pirie Scott on State Street and authoring Greek Cookbook, Delair Publishing (1980). In 1987 she married architect Lloyd Siegel and returned to DC. Margot died in her home in DC on December 24, 2020.

Birthplace

Washington, D.C.