Euterpe Dukakis Runs Hard for ‘First Mother’

At a Long Beach school and later at a Redondo Beach church, the questions came fast and furious.

“Did you favor your son marrying a Jewish woman?” one youngster wanted to know.

“Was he stubborn as a child?” another asked.

Euterpe Dukakis, 84, a Greek immigrant and very possibly the next “First Mother,” smiled benignly and tried to explain.

No, she said, she wasn’t at all bothered that Kitty Dukakis is Jewish, although initially she had been a little concerned about her previous divorce.

Stubborn Child

And yes, her son, Michael, certainly was stubborn as a child. “But stubbornness can be a good quality,” she said. After all, it was his perseverance that got him to the brink of the Democratic presidential nomination.

Her son’s political ambitions, in fact, were what Euterpe--herself a former teacher--had come to discuss with these students at Stephens Junior High School and later at St. Katherine’s Greek Orthodox Church in Redondo Beach.

Almost since the beginning of her son’s bid for the presidency, campaign workers say, Euterpe Dukakis has been a full-time campaigner, traveling throughout the country with the energy of someone half her age.

At the church, about 200 well-dressed adults plus a handful of children greeted her, some in her native Greek. At the front of the hall were large signs in Greek, conveying wishes for success and health to her son.

Speaking in English--with an occasional Greek interjection--the petite, silver-haired woman told an immigrant’s success story.

Born in 1903 in the Greek town of Larissa, she emigrated to the United States with her family at age 8 and became a teacher. Her late husband, Panos, also an immigrant, overcame prejudice against immigrants to be accepted at Harvard Medical School.

Mrs. Dukakis received a standing ovation after recalling the couple’s story. Speaking in the third person, she said: “To think their son is now running for the presidency of the United States. If there was ever anything that could fulfill the American dream (more) than that, I should like to know.”

Some of the questions put to her were about her son, others were more general.

A man asked whether her Greek name ever made it difficult for her to find a job.

“Yes, I did have difficulty getting my first job. My name (Boukis) was Greek. There was a great deal of discrimination against Greeks, Italians . . . people from the southern part of Europe.”

Another person asked whether her son had always hoped to be president.

“I think not,” she replied. “I have been told that when he was in college he did say he wanted to be governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.”

A small boy asked: “Why did Michael Dukakis think to be a president?”

The reply: “Do you have any idea why? Well, there is a saying. He was born in the United States. . . . We always said, ‘Much has been given you, much is expected of you.’ ”

By 9:30 p.m., two hours after arriving at the church and 19 hours after she awoke at 2:20 a.m., she was still shaking hands and signing autographs.

Both Democrats and Republicans at the church praised her and her son.

“I think it’s great,” Anne Eliopulos said. “It’s a privilege to have someone Greek-American run for president.”