Nina Cookorinis

Nina was born Ourania Berdanis on the Greek island of Skopelos in 1930. She was an only child and immigrated to the United States with her mother Keratso in 1937, joining her father Gus and entering the first grade in Cleveland, Mississippi. Nina studied violin as a child and even performed on a radio broadcast. She loved animals and flowers and grew up raising a variety of pets including chickens, a squirrel, and many beloved cats and dogs. Her family moved to Montgomery, Alabama a few years later, to live in the thriving community of the Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church.

In Montgomery she sang in the choir, planned church events, and went to Sidney Lanier High School. She studied biology and French at Huntington College and George Washington University in DC, which prepared her for a career in teaching. While on a family trip to her native Skopelos, she met and fell in love at first sight with John Andrew Cookorinis, whom she married a month after. They spent the next sixty years together, first in Athens, Greece and then in Montgomery, until John’s passing in 2021. Together they taught at Alex City State Junior College, and years later opened Yanneen Jewelers, which they ran together in Montgomery for nearly 40 years. She and John were very active in their community and were members of various service organizations as well as on the parish council of the Annunciation Church. Nina was always known for her honesty, good sense of humor, tireless work ethic, and spitfire personality. There was nothing she couldn’t do, and, at 5’1”, she truly personified the saying, “Dynamite comes in small packages.”

She is survived by her daughter Chérie (Marios O’Connell) of Roswell, Georgia and her three granddaughters: Nina Patronis of Atlanta and Sofia and Maria O’Connell. She will be greatly missed.

A friends and family visitation for Nina will be held Sunday, February 26, 2023 from 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM at Leak Memory Chapel, 945 Lincoln Rd, Montgomery, Alabama 36109. A funeral service will occur Monday, February 27, 2023 at 11:00 AM at Annunciation Greek Orthodox Church, 1721 Mt. Meigs Rd., Montgomery, Alabama 36107 followed by an interment in Greenwood Cemetery.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.Leak-MC.com for the Cookorinis family.