Bess Stamatakos

Age 93, of Okemos, died on April 9, 2024, after living a long and wonderful life. Bess will be best remembered for her devotion to family, deep and unadvertised faith, intellectual engagement, selflessness, and love of music and the Democratic Party.

Vasiliki (Bess) was born on September 9, 1930, in South Bend, Indiana, to Peter and Panagiota (Dorothy) Makris, who immigrated in 1929 from Tripoli, Greece. Bess was the first of five children, and she was a product of the Great Depression. Her childhood was defined by neighborhood outings with her sister Effie and cousin Christine (and later, sister Elaine and brother Chris), taking piano lessons and listening to opera, immersion in the city library, going to Greek School, and visiting the Victoria Lunch, the downtown diner run by her father and his brothers. Speaking only Greek, Bess started school at Madison Elementary School at the age of 4, and went on to excel academically at Colfax School and South Bend Central High.

Bess attended Indiana University, and her college years were times of great intellectual and social immersion. At IU, Bess met Louis Stamatakos, a dashing World War II veteran whose many marriage proposals to Bess ultimately yielded an acceptance. Bess graduated from Indiana University in 1951 with a degree in mathematics and physics, and Bess and Lou married the next year. Lou was the love of Bess’s life, and together they formed a dynamic and equal partnership.

Bess returned to IU and completed graduate school. The couple then embarked on an exciting journey that included living in El Paso, Lubbock, Milwaukee, and Grand Rapids, as Lou pursued a career in university student affairs and Bess worked as a schoolteacher. In 1967, Bess and Lou settled in Okemos, and Lou accepted a faculty position at Michigan State University. While raising three boys and with Lou’s encouragement, Bess once again returned to school and graduated from MSU in 1976 with a doctoral degree in philosophy. She taught for many years at Lansing Community College and MSU, from which she retired as a member of the faculty in 1992. The Stamatakos home was a loving household characterized by music, endless driveway basketball games, and lively discourse on any topic worthy of discussion or disagreement. Bess welcomed all visitors with an open mind and genuine caring.

For more than 50 years, Bess was a devoted parishioner of the Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, where she served for decades as the organist, participated in the life of the Church, and deeply loved her fellow parishioners. Her sewing, knitting and quilting were exemplary and yielded many sweaters, afghan blankets, upholstered chairs, and intricate embroidered pillows and needlepoints. An author in her later life, Bess wrote and published Tea Leaves and Dreams, a love story set during Greece’s War of Independence.

Bess is preceded in death by her husband Lou (2011), her father Peter (1967), her mother, Panagiota (2002), her sister Elaine (2008), her brothers Chris (2015) and John (2023), and her son Philip (2016). Bess is survived by her sister Effie, her sons Theodore (Alyssa) and Timothy (Corrin), daughter-in-law Sarah, and nine grandchildren – Thomas, Katherine, William, Sophia, Alexandra, Andrew, Ryan, Elizabeth and Eliana. The family would like to express its gratitude for the wonderful team of caregivers at StoryPoint Northville, as well as the compassionate staff at Livonia’s Angela Hospice.

The family will receive friends at 6:00 p.m. on Thursday, April 11, 2024, at Estes-Leadley, 325 West Washtenaw Street, Lansing, MI 48933. A Trisagion Service will follow at 7:00 p.m. The funeral service will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, April 12, 2024, at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1701 East Saginaw Street, Lansing, MI 48912.  Interment will be in Evergreen Cemetery.  Memorial contributions may be made to Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in memory of Bess Stamatakos.