Frieda lived a long and healthy life and we would like to honor her memory with a fundraiser for Alzheimer's research.  She suffered from dementia the past few years and we hope that your donations will help others in the future.

Here is more about our mom:

Frieda Halivopoulos, née Farganis, of Metuchen, New Jersey, passed away peacefully on December 5, 2020, at the age of 91 of natural causes.  She was a resident of Metuchen for 56 years.

Frieda was born in New York City on July 15, 1929 to Richard and Catherine Farganis and was the oldest of their 3 children. She attended local public schools and New York University, where she studied dramatic arts and loved performing in plays like Our Town by Thornton Wilder. Her career included working as the executive assistant to Edward Fisher Brown of National Dairy Products, the predecessor to Kraft Foods.

At the age of 26, Frieda decided to visit Greece for the first time to meet her grandparents and numerous aunts, uncles and cousins, whom she heard about in stories from her immigrant parents. She boarded the Queen Mary and set sail for the UK and somehow made it to Greece.  While there, she met the love of her life, Eleftherios, or Leftheri for short, on a blind date and they were subsequently married in Thessaloniki a few months later. 

Frieda and Leftheri decided to move to Brooklyn, New York, so he could pursue his medical internship and residency in the United States.  They later moved to New Jersey, where he eventually founded Metuchen Pediatrics Associates.  It was truly a joint endeavor with Frieda managing the business aspects of the practice for many years, until she left to raise their children full time. 

As a way of giving back to the community, Frieda was actively involved in the Women’s Auxiliary of JFK Hospital for decades.  Her passions included tennis, traveling, cooking, dining out, and of course, her family.

She was pre-deceased by her beloved husband, Dr. Eleftherios Halivopoulos, and her brother, James Farganis, and is survived by her daughter, Lori Halivopoulos of Bernardsville, New Jersey, and her son, George Halivopoulos, of Monroe Township, New Jersey and their spouses Brian Szepkouski and Lisa Halivopoulos. In addition, she is survived by her sister, Georgia Christopoulos, and her grandchildren, Hannah, Kyle, Georgie and Stephen. Her extended family, including sister-in-law, Sondra Farganis, and brother-in-law, George Christopoulos, nieces and nephews, Andreas, Daphne, Alexander and Dion, and numerous relatives in Greece, will all miss her dearly.

We are forever grateful to Sally Kumah, Frieda’s caregiver, whose love, caring, and commitment to preserving dignity gave us the gift of many more quality years with our beloved mother and yiayia. She is a true angel.

Gifts in Frieda’s memory may be made on this page.

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