Steve Billirakis, 70, brother of lawmaker

TARPON SPRINGS - Steve Billirakis, brother of U.S. Rep. Mike Bilirakis, died Wednesday (April 23, 2003) at Morton Plant Hospital. Billirakis, who uses a traditional spelling of the family name, succumbed to lung cancer.

He was 70.

According to his wife, Patricia "Pat," Rep. Bilirakis has been at his brother's bedside with the family throughout the last few weeks. He has been a winter resident since 2000 from Dundee, N.Y. The malignancy was first diagnosed two years ago while he and his wife were here on their annual winter visit. He underwent surgery locally.

"Everything seemed to have worked out okay and he felt good for a while. When we got back down here in January and he went to his doctor for a checkup, we found out that the cancer had reoccurred and there was nothing that could be done," his wife said.

Born in Tarpon Springs, he was one of three sons of Emanuel and Irene Billirakis, immigrants from the Greek island of Kalymnos, who came to Tarpon Springs. The family moved to Pittsburgh when he was an infant so that his father could work in the steel mills. He grew up in Clareton, Pa.

His parents returned to Tarpon Springs in 1960 and lived there until 1985, but he was not with them because he was a career military serviceman by then.

He retired after 20 years in the Air Force with the rank of senior master sergeant and was a veteran of the Korean and Vietnam wars. After that, he graduated from Troy State College and then went to Stetson College of Law but did not continue in that field. His second career was as assistant to the chief executive of Adelphia Cable Co., Coudersport, Pa.

He retired from Adelphia after 12 years and in 2000 started to make Tarpon Springs his winter home, coming annually. He attended St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Tarpon Springs, and was a member of St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Jamestown, N.Y.

He was a life member of Rotary Club of Holiday and a past president of both the Wellsville Nitros Baseball Organization and the New York Collegiate Baseball League, both in Wellsville, N.Y.

Besides his wife of 48 years and his brother, survivors include three sons, Manuel M., Chicago, Steve E., Mundelein, Ill., and Christopher G., Chicago; two daughters, Debra K. Merritt, Crescent City, and Lynne I. Sphoundouris, Dundee, N.Y.; a sister, Mary Kalogeris, Bethel Park, Pa.; seven grandchildren; and several nieces and nephews. Another brother, George, preceded him in death.

Visitation will be Sunday from 1:30 to 3:30 and 6 to 8 p.m. at Thomas B. Dobies Funeral Home, 701 E Tarpon Ave., Tarpon Springs, with a Trisagion Service at 7 p.m. Funeral services will be at 1 p.m. Monday at St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Tarpon Springs. Burial will be later in New York.

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