Beloved Winnipeg restaurateur and Folklorama co-founder Mary Kelekis dead at 94

Mary Kelekis, a fixture in the community who was an owner of the much-loved restaurant in Winnipeg's North End that bore her family name, has died.

In addition to helping found Folklorama — the multicultural festival that recently celebrated its 50th year — she was the last owner of the famous family-run Kelekis Restaurant, a landmark on Main Street near Redwood Avenue that was known for its shoestring fries and hot dogs for 81 years.

It closed in 2013, at which point Mary was still running the restaurant. 

She died Tuesday at age 94.

Her nephew, Jim Pappas, remembers the Kelekis women — including Mary — as forces to be reckoned with.

"My mother had five sisters and we actually had six mothers, because every one of them mothered us in a different way," he explained.

"What we learned … was that women, although they traditionally had a secondary role in society, was that these women were very powerful. They knew what they were doing, they worked hard, and they had a tremendous attitude toward life."

Mary Kelekis and her sisters took over the restaurant from their father, after joining the business in the 1930s. She continued to run the North End institution for decades.

Pappas remembers Mary as a hard-working, community-minded woman.

He saw her strength and business acumen first-hand working alongside her at the restaurant.

"The restaurant was part of our life. I started working when I was 13. I worked there all the way through junior high, high school and university, right until I graduated university," he said.

Pappas also helped his aunt at the restaurant for most of the 2000s until it closed.

The day it closed, Kelekis told CBC News she liked visiting with the patrons.

"The customers that come in here all the time — you get to know them. That's what's nice about the counter," she said in 2013.

When she wasn't working, she was volunteering in the community, Pappas said.

In addition to helping found Folklorama, she served within her church and on the board of the Misericordia Hospital Foundation, and was one of the driving forces behind starting an alumni club at Daniel McIntyre High School, where she attended.

"She was a person who loved being in the community, who loved being part of the community, and who loved giving back to the community," Pappas recalls.

Kelekis's funeral service is scheduled for Sept. 13 at St. Demetrios Greek Orthodox Church.