PERSEPHONE C. PAPANICOLAOU
(1898-1941)

Persephone C. Papanicolaou was the first-born daughter of Constantine G. Papanicolaou (1863-1935) and Angélique M. Calouda (1879-1912).  She was born in Lidoriki in central Greece, where her father was appointed Justice of the Peace, following the family tradition.  The latter, who was a graduate of the Law School of the University of Athens, was originally from the village of Drestina or Drestena (today Tristeno) at Doris and his family name was originally Facalos (The change of name was due to his grand-father's status, the priest -papa- Nicolas Facalos).  After also having served in Larissa, Thessaly, he resigned from the judiciary and migrated with his family to Egypt, where he settled as a landowner at Tewfikia by Kafr El Zayat and traded fertilizers, cotton, iron and timber.  Following the premature death of her mother, who came from the island of Chios, her father remarried to Calliope Arvanitakis.  In 1917, she was married in Alexandria, Egypt, to John N. Kyriacou (1888-1971), with whom she gave birth to two sons and a daughter, Angélique J. Kyriacou (1925-1987).  Persephone C. Papanicolaou passed away prematurely during the foreign occupation in Athens, Greece, where, while on family holiday, she was prevented from returning to Egypt because of the outbreak of the war.  It is from her that Persa (Cangelaris-Bergerat) (1952) got her name.