Barbara Ann Pappas

On Tuesday, January 17, 2023, Barbara Ann Pappas passed away. Barbara was a beloved wife, mother, grandmother, and great grandmother. She was eighty-one. Born to Hazel and Yves Hulin on January 25, 1941 in Mercy Hospital in New Orleans, LA. Barbara married Chris Pappas in 1967 after they met working together at RCA Service Company in Birmingham, AL. Barbara was a secretary and Chris a TV technician. Chris and Barbara relocated to Montgomery, AL later that year so Chris could pursue a new career in the burgeoning field of two-way radio communications. After sixteen years with Southeastern Electronics, Chris and Barbara founded Communications Service Company. They developed a thriving business together over the next thirty-two years working side by side every day and night. They sold their business and retired, relocating to Fairhope, AL in 2015, to be closer to their children and grandchildren.

Early in their marriage, Barbara mastered the art of cooking traditional Greek food and worked diligently each holiday season preparing a massive amount of baklava, pasticcio, lamb, and other Greek delicacies and delivering them personally to the couple’s friends, family, and customers carefully wrapped in tissue and tied with ribbon. Barbara was heavily involved in ESA, a sorority of powerful business women in Alabama that worked tirelessly to support St Jude’s hospital for children. Her sorority sisters, friends, and colleagues describe Barbara, as feisty, hard-working, brilliant, and exceptionally skilled as a writer and decorator. In the early years of their marriage Barbara also worked as a cosmetologist to help support the family while Chris worked his way up in the field of electronics. Barbara became determined to document the unique immigration history of the Pappas family, gathering and framing letters written by American congressman and statesman on behalf of Gus Pappas in his case to reenter the country after he had returned to Greece at the age of nineteen, where he met his future wife, Koula, and conceived their oldest son Billy while he fulfilled his obligation to serve in the Greek navy in the war against Turkey. Among these documents was a special bill passed by the congress so Gus Pappas could remain in America, becoming a citizen in the mid 1930s. These documents and this family history may have been lost if not for Barbara’s dedication. This is just one example of the many ways Barbara worked tirelessly for the ones she loved.

Barbara is survived by her husband of 55 years, Chris G. Pappas Sr., her three children, Debbie, Terry, and Chris, her five grandchildren, Mitch, Jeremy, Ali, Beck, and Will, and her seven great grandchildren, Jude, Ryan, Charlie, John-Christopher, Joseph, Apollo, and Emmitt. Barbara’s death was preceded by the death of her first grandchild Ryan in 2000 at the age of fourteen.

The funeral will be held on Saturday, January 21 at 2:00 pm at Alabama Heritage Funeral Home in Montgomery, Al. There will also be a wake / visitation for family and friends at the same funeral home on Friday, January 20 at 5:00 pm. In lieu of flowers, send donations to St Jude’s Children’s Hospital in Memphis, TN or The Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church in Montgomery, AL.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.AlabamaHeritageFH.com for the Pappas family.