Maria D. Karageorge was born in Viniani, Evrytanias on November 10th, 1925 to Demitrios and Alexandra Karageorge. She had two siblings (Spiros and George) and was the youngest of the three children. Maria was considered an American citizen at birth by virtue of her father having obtained a US citizenship in 1920. Although her early years in Viniani would be marked by many happy memories, her formative teenage years were marred by some of the fiercest fighting of World War 2 in Greece. The mountain areas around Viniani birthed the Greek resistance movement, and Maria had many stories of how she (as well as many other young women) would sneak up to caves to help care for the wounded. For a time, the printing press for one of the local resistance cell newsletters was hidden in the basement at the Karageorge house in Viniani. After the war, Maria immigrated to America with her mother Alexandra in late 1946. Her brothers were already in America, and she went to live in her brother Spiro's house in Alton, Illinois, where she cared for his two sons Jim and George after their mother Eleni passed.

On October 9th, 1950, a marriage was arranged between Maria and Konstantinos Fakonas in Alton, Illinois. Her husband was from Messenia, Greece. They moved to St. Louis, Missouri, where he worked as a chemist for the Rexall Drug Company, and she worked as a department store sales clerk until their children Lucia Ann Fakonas and Anastassios Demitrios Fakonas were born. Unfortunately, the marriage ended in divorce in 1965, and Maria along with her children moved to Phoenix, Arizona.

Maria was immensely proud of both her Greek heritage and the village of her birth, and the Greek church and its community were central to her identity. She was an active and enthusiastic participant in “Philoptohos”, “Daughters of Penelope”, and Greek cultural events. She was particularly fond of activities that emphasized the more unique aspects of Greek culture to both Greeks and non-Greeks. Maria Fakonas passed away in Phoenix, Arizona in 2010. ADDENDUM On the Karageorge family's contribution of land to New Viniani After the earthquake of 1966, the Greek government decided to relocate the village to a more geographically stable location. The parcel of land granted to Takis "George" Karageorges (Maria's brother) was generously donated to the village in order to build the church of the Dormentation of the Virgin Mary in New Viniani.