Posted by Newspaper Transcriber on Saturday, October 21, 2006 at 14:46:37 :

Evanthia Gounalakis

Evanthia Gounalakis, who lived for 16 years in Half Moon Bay with her son and daughter-in-law, Chris and Sunneva Gounalakis, died Sept. 1 at Seton Medical Center Coastside. She was 85.

Mrs. Gounalakis was born in 1921 in Piraeus, the port of Athens, in Greece. There, she grew up and married her husband, Manolis Gounalakis, shortly after World War II. In Athens, they owned a coffee shop which included a restaurant, for about 10 years, up to the late 1960s. At that time, with their two sons, they came to San Francisco.

In the Bay Area, Mrs. Gounalakis was a homemaker. She also worked as a housekeeper for the Villa Hotel in San Mateo, and had her own business cleaning homes, from the late 1960s through the early 1980s.

The couple settled in their own home in San Carlos, and filled that home with friends and family, said their son, Chris Gounalakis of Half Moon Bay. "The house always had 20 to 30 people" visiting, he said. "She knew how to live and enjoy her friends and family. The house was always open to everyone for dinner and dancing."

When Mr. Gounalakis suffered ill health later in life, Mrs. Gounalakis cared for him until his death in 1986. Shortly after that she moved to Half Moon Bay with her son and his family.

They lived south of Half Moon Bay where they worked on a local pumpkin farm. Mrs. Gounalakis sold pumpkins and helped with the cooking and household maintenance, said her son.

"She was a very loving mother and will definitely be missed, big time, by everyone who knew her," he said.

"She was always outgoing, very pleasant, always with a smile," he continued. "She would be positive, always. She was very tiny, but her personality was much bigger."

Mrs. Gounalakis was preceded in death by her husband, Manolis, who died in 1986. She is survived by her sons and their families, Chris and Sunneva Gounalakis of Half Moon Bay, and children Manolis Gounalakis of Montara and Irini Gounalakis of El Granada; and George and Katia Gounalakis, and children Maria Gounalakis and Anthoula Gounalakis, all of Greece.

A funeral was held Sept. 6, followed by burial at the Greek Orthodox Memorial park in Colma.

Half Moon Bay Review and Pescadero Pebble, Wednesday, September 13, 2006