Barbara Lyssarides dies, aged 85

Barbara Cornwall Lyssarides, the wife of the founder and honorary chairman of Edek party Vassos Lyssarides, died on Sunday at age 85.

Expressing its deep condolences to Vassos Lyssarides, Edek issued an announcement describing Lyssaridou as “a prominent and polite figure, a supporter of the peoples who fought for their freedom and independence.”

Lyssaridou was born in Detroit, USA, in 1934. She studied history and journalism at Wayne University, Detroit.

As a correspondent for American newspapers, Lyssaridou stopped in Cyprus, on her way to India, to cover the Eoka struggle of 1955-1959, and stayed.

She found a job at the Times of Cyprus daily newspaper and later became the newspaper’s news editor. She was also the Cyprus correspondent for Time magazine.

Barbara met Vassos while working as a journalist. They married in 1963.

Details regarding the funeral will be announced later.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.