Dedes, Eleni

Eleni Dedes’ parents, James and Maria Sourry, were both born in Kythera. They met in Walcha, New South Wales. They became the owners of the White Rose Cafe in Uralla which is where Eleni was born and where she spent her childhood and adolescence. In 1943, James Sourry died and for the next four years, with her mother and younger sister, Eleni Dedes managed the cafe. In 1947, both sisters married and the cafe was sold.

Eleni married George Dedes.* They worked in a cafe in Moree before finally settling in Armidale where George had a partnership with his brothers-in-law in the Minerva Cafe in Armidale, then worked at the local brickworks, and finally took a position as bar-manager at the Armidale Bowling Club. The couple had seven children.

George Dedes died in 1983; Eleni Dedes in 1987.

Eleni Dedes’ memories and photographs are among those shared in Cafes and Cafeowners published in 1989 as one of the case studies for the Immigrants in the Bush project.

* Uralla Times, 28 August 1947, p3 provides a lengthy description of the double wedding (Eleni’s sister Katina was married at the same time) prefaced by an explanation of Greek betrothal and marriage rituals.

Source: Janis Wilton, Different Sights, Immigrants in New England. Used with permission.