Mon Valley bakery operator brought joy with delectable treats
Pauline Croussouloudis could put a smile on anyone’s face.
For nearly 50 years, she and her husband operated the Keystone Bakery in the midMon Valley, serving generations of loyal customers and expanding the company that, in its heyday, eventually grew to five locations with more than 1,200 products.
Much of its success — which came despite a devastating economic downturn in the region — can be attributed to Mrs. Croussouloudis’ hard work and dedication, friends said.
“I always regarded Pauline as the matriarch of her family,” said Bernard Shire, a longtime friend and retired Monessen lawyer. “She was very instrumental in the operation of the bakery, along with her husband, John. She was a true leader.”
Mrs. Croussouloudis was admired in her community of Monessen also as a civic leader who co- owned two other businesses and did everything in her power to restore prosperity to a town that had seen better days.
Mrs. Croussouloudis, 87, died July 5 at her retirement home in Aleppo after a sudden cardiac incident.
The daughter of Greek immigrants, Mrs. Croussouloudis grew up in Stockdale, Washington County, and graduated from Charleroi Area High School in 1949.
She and her husband knew each other as children because their families worshipped together at St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church in Monessen, a hub of the local Hellenic community, said her daughter Mary Ellen Countouris, of Forest Hills.
“They knew each other their whole lives, but they couldn’t date until adulthood,” she said.
The couple married in October 1958.
Mr. Croussouloudis’ father, Costas, became a partner in the bakery in 1927 and handed the business over to the newlyweds in 1959.
“The year after they were married, they took over the bakery and they grew it,” Ms. Countouris said of her parents. “From that one location, they moved and expanded.”
Running the business consumed her parents’ lives, Ms. Countouris said.
“The two of them worked six days a week into their 70s,” she said. “They worked very hard, but they never worked Sundays.”
Mrs. Croussouloudis began working in the bakery decorating and designing cakes, her daughter said.
The largest confection she ever made was a giant weddingcake replica of the church where a client’s wedding took place, she told The Pittsburgh Press in 1992.
She eventually moved into a management role and designed a software system to help coordinate production at the burgeoning business.
It wasn’t easy planning a schedule to bake, decorate, package and deliver more than a thousand items — many of which needed to be made fresh every day.
The original store in Monessen was relocated in 1974 and renovated into a full- service bakery that produced items for the company’s other locations, which at one time included a smaller outlet in Monessen, along with bakeries in Rostraver, Charleroi and Monongahela.
“To make that many products and to keep them fresh, you need a system,” Ms. Countouris said. “You can’t make too much or you have to donate it or throw it away, but at the same time you have to have full stock. That planning was important.”
The same sophisticated software system designed by Mrs. Croussouloudis is still being used at the bakery, where her nephew took over 12 years ago.
The original bakery in Monessen was so beloved that customers began forming a line outside at dawn in March 2007 to lament the loss of the longtime institution and to bid farewell to Mrs. Croussouloudis and her husband, who planned to close the bakery so they could finally retire.
But her nephew J. J. Georgagis stepped in to rescue the business, which now includes locations in Monessen and Rostraver and new products, like pizza and pierogies.
“The business is still thriving,” said Mr. Shire, who said people come from far and wide to visit the bakery. “It’s been a mainstay and the fact that it’s still surviving well is an attribute to their skill.”
Her parents each had unique talents that meshed together well, Ms. Countouris said.
“My father and mother had different personalities and that’s what made the business so successful,” she said. “You need that balance for a strong business and they had those complementary skills.”
Her mother always had a knack for business and numbers, Ms. Countouris said, having earned a two- year business degree from the Douglas School of Business before working in the offices of a local steel company for several years.
Mrs. Croussouloudis served on the boards of the Monongahela Valley Hospital and the Monessen Community Development Corp.
She and some friends also partnered to open a gift shop and a toy store in Monessen, which helped to spur the local economy, Mr. Shire said.
“I think it was a sign of her interest in the town and in the welfare of the community,” he said. “And it gave a real shot in the arm to the downtown area.”
Mrs. Croussouloudis was a crossword aficionado and voracious reader who recently rediscovered her love of authors from her childhood, such as Louisa May Alcott, her daughter said.
“She also kept a prayer book next to her bed and she and my father would read it together,” Ms. Countouris said.
Along with her husband and daughter, Mrs. Croussouloudis is survived by three other daughters, Joan Davin- Hummel, of Mt. Lebanon; Paula Borsch, of Munhall; and Angie Fitzpatrick, of Cranberry; a brother, J. James Georgagis, of Stockdale; two sisters, Mary Kladakis, of Burgettstown, and Phyllis Countouris, of Green Tree; and 11 grandchildren.
Her funeral was Tuesday. Memorial donations may be made to St. Spyridon Greek Orthodox Church, 1207 Grand Blvd., Monessen, PA 15062.