Born in the village of Ierissos, Halkidiki, in 1936, Theodora "Dora" Papargyri was orphaned by age ten, losing both parents and her sister to malaria during the German occupation of Thessaloniki. At seventeen, while working in a factory, she was discovered by a local musician and fellow factory worker, who recognized her extraordinary singing ability. What followed was an overnight rise from provincial obscurity to a professional career that carried Theodora from the bouzouki clubs of Greece to the stages of Cyprus, Egypt, and Paris, before her eventual immigration to America in 1963.
This intimate conversation from 2016 between my grandmother and mother is a remarkable testimony that illuminates an improbable journey from an orphaned factory worker to a celebrated performer, set against the backdrop of the Greek diaspora experience of the mid-twentieth century.
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