Urania Thomas, 91, a former department store and accounting department worker, died of kidney failure Saturday, Feb. 2, in Good Samaritan Hospital, Downers Grove. When she was 2 years old, her family moved to the United States from Tripolis, Greece, going through Ellis Island and settling in Chicago. Because her family was poor, Mrs. Thomas needed to find work as a youngster and was unable to finish high school. She worked in her father’s grocery store, and later for the Mars Candy Co. For 15 years she was employed by Mandel Brothers and Wieboldt’s department stores in Chicago. But the job she loved most, her daughter Evodia Chiodras said, was her work in the accounting department of Moody Bible Institute. “My mother always worked because times were hard,” Chiodras said. “We had a four-bedroom apartment and a lot of the time each of the four bedrooms was rented out. We slept in the living room or in the dining room.” Mrs. Thomas always had a great attitude, her daughter said. “She never complained about all the work she had to do. … Our entire family thought of her as a saint, the perfect example that anyone could ever follow,” her daughter said. Mrs. Thomas is also survived by a son, Daniel; six grandchildren; nine great-grandchildren; and a sister, Lois Marines. Visitation will be from 9 to 10 a.m. Tuesday, followed by services, in Gibbons Funeral Home, 134 South York Rd., Elmhurst.
