Rosita Sokou, one of the foremost journalists of Greece, died on Tuesday, 14 December, from COVID-19.

A strong personality, Sokou was one of the first female journalists in Greece, starting her career as a film critic in 1946 and worked with some of the most accomplished creatives in Greece and abroad.

Her father, Georgios Sokos, was a journalist, editor and playwright from Aitoliko, West Greece, who died at the age of 44, just before the war. Her mother Titika Michailidou came from Smyrna.

Rosita-Maria-Zoe Sokou (her full name) was born in Plaka, Athens, Greece, on 9 September 1923, growing up in Psychiko. Her maternal grandfather, Fotis Michailidis, was a cinema and theatre fan and made her see all films and plays available every week, and Rosita started writing reviews of what she saw while in high school.

Fotis Michailidis was also the co-founder of well-known Greek pasta manufacturer MISKO in 1927.

The young girl graduated from the prestigious Arsakeio School in Psychiko. During the war and occupation she perfected her French at the Institut Français under Roger Milliex and English at the British Council (Cambridge Diploma of English Studies). She attended the State School of Fine Arts which she left to study with painter Yannis Tsarouchis – who later discouraged her from becoming a painter – and also attended the Vassilis Rotas Drama School for the purpose of general knowledge, while working from a tender age as a translator and a foreign language teacher. After the end of the German Occupation and the Civil War, in 1947, she attended a summer course on 20th century literature at Lady Margaret Hall College in Oxford.

She lived in Rome, Italy, after marrying Italian journalist/author Manlio Maradei and moved back to Greece with her daughter to remove her work.

Celebrity status came when she joined the panel of a TV Show, ‘Na i Efkeria’ (There’s the Opportunity) from 1977 through to 1983.

In 1992 she hosted ‘Visitors at Night’ on New Channel which was filmed in her own living room, and simultaneously to this, translated the works of many authors.

She was very involved with theatre and wrote plays, adaptations and more. She also wrote books, and won awards from the French government and from Greece for her Greek journalism. She collaborated with many foremost personalities in Greece and abroad, including Manos Hadjidakis, Dimitris Horn, Yannis Tsarouchis but also Marlon Brando and Rudolf Nureyev. Following his death, Rosita and her daughter updated contents from the book ‘Nureyev – As I Knew Him’ (2003) to include Rosita’s day-by-day diaries from when she travelled to London, Paris and Vienna for rehearsals and first production of his main works to give a fascinating behind-the-scenes glimpse into the lives of the artists and technicians responsible for the performances.

In 2005 she wrote “Mario and I”, a biography of Greek singer Mario Frangoulis and account of her long-time friendship with him. It was published by Kastaniotis editions.

In 2018 she published her 2-volume autobiography, titled ‘Rosita’s Century’ (O aionas tis Rositas), ranging from her grandparents’ eloping in Smyrna to the present day. Volume 1 covers the first half of the 20th century, roughly until her marriage and moving to Italy and volume 2 the years of her marriage, motherhood, return to Greece and most of her career as a journalist, including the many people, famous or not famous, she met in her long life.

The book was compiled from chapters and pages written by her in the past 20 years or so, integrated with info from her articles and interviews given, the whole thing checked and edited by her daughter Irene Maradei, who also wrote the preface. A revised and expanded edition is planned for the end of 2021.

In the years before her death, Rosita taught Theatrical History at the “Melissa” Drama School created by Elda Panopoulou and at the Piraeus Union Drama School. Not so much a formal history, the one found in books, as her own behind-the-scenes experiences of Greek theatre and its artists, with whom she has lived side by side for the better part of a century.

She passed away at the age of 98 years.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2CUIIpMMsXY