It will likely surprise you to learn that Maria Pappas, one of our most recognizable politicians, grew up in West Virginia, ran a youth drug prevention program at the Altgeld Gardens public housing project on the Far South Side, likes to cook and exercise and did not think about political office until 1990. It may not surprise you to learn that in her new memoir, “Maria the Pappas,” there are more than 450-some photos and she is in all but a few, smiling and hugging her way across her 77 years.
“I have lived many lives,” she writes. “The aim of this book is to share the stories from those lives with you.”
She has been a public figure since being elected to the Cook County Board of Commissioners representing Chicago in 1990 and the 10th district in 1994 and since 1998 as the Cook County treasurer. She has not lived in the shadows.
As Sun-Times columnist Neil Steinberg has written, “Pappas represents, to me, a glimpse of the vanished idiosyncratic glory of the city, the colorful past which always seems to be disappearing over the horizon, if not utterly lost already. The carnation-wearers, the bamboo-cane leaners, the nudge-and-winkers, the organ-grinders, the First Ward Ball revelers.”
A couple of years ago she decided to write a memoir, and to assist her in that chore, she chose writer Mark Eleveld and the proof that it was a wise choice is spread across the book’s 270 pages.
“The wealth and depth of stories that most people don’t know is really remarkable,” Eleveld tells me. “She is, and I’m not the only one to use this word, as does almost everybody she comes in contact with. … The word is authentic.”
Eleveld has been for decades a teacher in high school and college classrooms, literature and journalism his main areas. His passion for words has led him to a prominent role in the city’s poetry scene. He has worked closely with Poetry Slam founder Marc Smith, collaborating with him on a compelling podcast. He helped organize the first Poetry Jam at the White House for President Barack Obama in 2009. He was on the 2020 committee to select the state’s next Poet Laureate. He has also been the ghostwriter or editor on a number of book projects, most prominently writing 2002’s splendid “The Spoken Word Revolution: Slam, Hip Hop & the Poetry of a New.” He has been married for decades, and he and his wife have three grown children.
This book began in 2024 when Ted Slowik, a friend, neighbor and longtime newspaper editor and columnist who was then working as Pappas’ director of media and public relations, asked Eleveld if he knew Pappas.
“Sure,” said Eleveld. “I know that name but not much else.”
“Well,” said Slowik, “she’s a rock star.”
Slowik arranged a meeting at a suburban restaurant where, after Eleveld gave her a hello hug, Pappas said, “OK. This is it. Let’s get started. Now.”
After nearly 20 hours of one-on-one interviews, along with materials culled from the thousands of items — files, photos, letters, audio and video recordings, and on and on — that Pappas had donated to Loyola University, where she earned a doctorate in counseling and psychology in 1976, Eleveld started writing.
“My main goal was to capture her voice,” he said. “She really is a gifted storyteller and I felt a responsibility to convey her stories honestly.”
He’s done a fine job, showing us her rocky but determined childhood, her academic successes, her teaching, entry into politics, the six years of her “Black Houses Matter” show on WVON-AM 1690. As she writes, “Like millions before me, I was drawn to Chicago to create myself, to forge an identity, to enter the teeming fray and make my mark… The city ultimately rewarded me… I couldn’t imagine myself anywhere but here.”
You will read that she previously collaborated on a book, “The Pappas Papers,” in 1994 with Sun-Times reporter Larry Weintraub, and how she came to hire two bright former Tribune colleagues of mine, Hal Dardick and Todd Lighty. You will read about foreign travels and street fairs. You will be moved reading of the deaths of her mother and father. You will meet and see many, many people, as Eleveld keeps the narrative brisk and lively.
You will not read about attorney Peter Kamberos, her husband since 1991. “That was intentional, nothing suspicious,” says Eleveld. “Though she is open about her own life, she didn’t want to share details about her husband and marriage. She wanted the focus to be firmly on her backstory and what she’s done in office.”
Eleveld sought some other voices. One is that of John Daley, son and brother to former mayors and fellow commissioner when Pappas served on the Cook County Board. He says in the book, “I have developed a personal relationship with Pappas. Not only me (but my brothers) Rich and Bill. My kids think of her almost like an aunt. She’s a family member. … I probably talk to her every day.”
She has, as most of you know, expressed interest in that office on the fifth floor of City Hall. Many in the crowd wanted to talk to her about that at her recent book signing presentation at Printer’s Row Lit Fest. That’s likely to be in the air when she appears on stage at the Green Mill (home of the Poetry Slam) on Oct. 18.
And from 1-4 p.m. Nov. 8, she will appear at an “official launch party” at the G-Man Tavern.
That is only a few days after Election Day, which will undoubtedly have her winning an eighth term as treasurer. It will be time for a decision, and I put the will-she-or-won’t-she-run-for-mayor question to Eleveld.
“It’s not my place to say,” he said. “I do know that she will only decide to run for mayor if she thinks she can help the city, help the people in this city. And I know that if I lived in the city, I’d vote for her seven times.”