Lake in the Hills woman put devotion to family, faith into action

Family and her Greek Orthodox faith were important to Ellen Makarounis of Lake in the Hills.

It fueled her desire to serve at St. Nectarios Greek Orthodox Church in Palatine, where she and her husband, Alexander, moved in the mid-1970s. Besides teaching Sunday school, she was active in the Philoptochos Society, the Greek women's philanthropic association devoted to charity, preserving life and promoting the faith.

But it also was evident in her home, where she spent 30 years taking care of her elderly parents and then her husband's parents, said Tansy Donovan, Makarounis' daughter.

Makarounis, 92, died July 31 of complications of COVID-19, family members said.

Although Makarounis was born in the Chicago area, her immigrant parents moved the family to Greece when she was just 2. The family returned seven years later. Speaking no English, Makarounis was put in kindergarten, but quickly progressed, graduating from high school with only a slight delay.

After receiving an associate degree, Makarounis started working. In 1962, while on a trip to Greece, she met her husband when they served as chaperones on a date for their cousins, Donovan said. They would have been married 58 years in October.

The couple lived in Chicago and then Palatine with her parents.

"She was just the kindest, most loving person," Donovan said. "She never got angry."

After her parents died, her in-laws came to the United States to live with them. But when her mother-in-law said she wanted to die in her homeland, Makarounis went with her, taking care of her in her final days in a Greek hospital.

Makarounis and her husband moved to Lake in the Hills in the 1990s to be near Donovan. She and Alexander volunteered with the Salvation Army Golden Diners program in Crystal Lake and traveled the world.

"She was just an incredible woman," Donovan said.