Lili Theotoka-Alivizatou

Lili Theotoka-Alivizatou
Birth:	October 1911 Constantinople, Ottoman Empire (present-day Istanbul, Turkey)
Death:	13 January 2022 Athens, Greece
Age:	110 years, 74-104 days
Country:	GRE
Unvalidated

Maria-Eleni "Lili" Theotoka-Alivizatou [Greek: Μαρία-Ελένη "Λιλή" Θεοτοκά-Αλιβιζάτου] (October 1911 – 13 January 2022) was a Greek supercentenarian whose age is currently unvalidated by the Gerontology Research Group (GRG).

Biography

Maria-Eleni "Lili" Theotoka-Alivizatou was born in Constantinople, Ottoman Empire, in October 1911. Her parents were Michalis Theotokas (1872–1951), who was a lawyer and adviser to the Ecumenical Patriarchate and later to the Greek delegation at the Lausanne conference.) and Androniki Nomikou, who was daughter of a merchant. Both her parents' origin was from the island of Chios. Lili's brother was writer and lawyer Yiorgos Theotokas (1905–1966), known as one of the leading figures and thinkers of the generation of the '30s. Just before the Great Offensive, her family moved to Athens, where Lili mingled with personalities of the spirit, art and science. She married Konstantinos Alivizatos (1905–1997), a professor of medicine and director of the Athens Polyclinic, and later politician and MP in the Greek Parliament. She had two children with him. Her son, is the famous constitutionalist Nikos Alivizatos (born 1949), who served as the Minister for the Interior, Public Administration and Decentralization for one month in the Third Cabinet of Costas Simitis and was also nominated as a candidate for the presidency of the Republic.

Throughout her life, Lili worked voluntarily and developed significant social action. She was present offering support to the families of the executed and to the children who were hospitalized in the Polyclinic during the Axis Occupation of Greece. In November 1973, together with her husband, she was next to the students at the Polytechnic, close to the refugees after the Turkish invasion of Cyprus, near children of the Ark of the World and the refugee children of Chios, knitting for them until the end of her life, although being blind. In the last years of her life, she kept a low profile, but remained active and mentally sharp. When she could not read by her own, she enjoyed the reading of newspapers and books by her family members, and remained informed for the current affairs.

She died in Athens, Greece on 13 January 2022, aged between 110 years, 74-104 days. At the time of her death, she was the second-oldest known living in Greece, behind Ioanna Proiou-Dimitriadou.

Gallery

Lili Theotoka with her brother, Yiorgos.

Lili Theotoka with her brother, Yiorgos, and her parents.

Lili Theotoka in 1914 with her brother, Yiorgos, and her parents. Photo from the 2020 autobiographical book of her son, Nikos Alivizatos, "Δύο βήματα μπρος, ένα πίσω").

Lili Theotoka with her father and her brother, Yiorgos.

Aged 15 (left)

As young woman during the Interwar Period.

As young woman

Lili Theotoka (right), with Dorothy Xydi (left) in Herodeum on 20 April 1975.

Knitting for refugee children, despite being blind.

References

• Υποθήκες εκατόχρονης γιαγιάς
• Ψήφισμα του Δ.Σ. του Συλλόγου Πυργουσών Αττικής, για τον θάνατο της κ. Λίλης (Μαρίας - Ελένης) Αλιβιζάτου - Θεοτοκά
• Λιλή Θεοτοκά-Αλιβιζάτου: αποχαιρετισμός σε μια μεγάλη κυρία που έζησε 111 χρόνια
• Πέθανε σε ηλικία 111 ετών η Λιλή Αλιβιζάτου, αδερφή του Γιώργου Θεοτοκά
• Μια συζήτηση με τη Λιλή Αλιβιζάτου με αφορμή το βιβλίο της
• Λιλή Αλιβιζάτου, 1911-2022
• Facebook post
• Facebook post