Obituary of Aglaia Caplanis

Aglaia (Kopitsas) Caplanis was born April 27, 1919 in Kato Figalia, Greece to Leonidas & Cleopatra (Papaspirou) Kopitsas. She was the youngest of eight children. Aglaia passed away peacefully in Tulsa surrounded by family members and priests on September 10, 2015. Her marriage to Tom Caplanis in 1950 was arranged by relatives in Greece. Aglaia and Tom made the voyage from Greece to Italy and arrived in the United States on Thanksgiving Day 1950. She looked forward to telling the story of their voyage every year during Thanksgiving. Aglaia was the consummate Greek mother. She took great care of her husband Tom and her daughters Cleopatra, Athena, and Rita. When her daughters married Steve and Mike, she welcomed them without reservation and treated them as her own sons. She was blessed with four grandchildren – Kelly, Clyde, Alyssa, and Kayla. As time passed, she welcomed Mark and Adam as part of the family,and ultimately two great grandchildren – Makinzie and Philippa. She cherished her grandchildren and her great grandchildren. Aglaia loved her family. Aglaia also loved her church. She attended Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox church in Tulsa for more than 60 years. The Orthodox Church conducts services almost every day of the week throughout the year. Aglaia attended almost every service and, many times, was the only parishioner in the pews. She was a familiar face at Tulsa’s Annual Greek Festival for more than 50 years. She could usually be found serving Loukoumades (honey puffs) and visiting with people throughout the festival. Her favorite part of the festival was watching the dancing. She especially enjoyed watching the young children dance. Her favorite social event was Margarita Wednesday. One of the highlights of her week, she loved eating Mexican food and visiting with family and friends every Wednesday night. Aglaia will be greatly missed and loved always by her family and many, many friends. Aglaia’s family is grateful for the love and respect shown to YiaYia by friends throughout the years, and is especially grateful for the compassion and caring of Aglaia by Lilika Panas, Dr. David Kondos, and Carolyn Edmondson. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that you please consider donating to one of the local Orthodox Christian churches: • Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church (http://holytrinity.ok.goarch.org/ ) • St. Antony Antiochian Orthodox Church (http://www.stantonytulsa.com/ ) • Holy Apostles Orthodox Christian Church (https://holyapostlesorthodox.org/ ) Through her actions, Aglaia set a great example for the manner in which each of us can live a loving life of integrity, a life of grace, and a life of dignity. May her memory be eternal.