Pailadzou A. Captanian or Gaptanian (; 21 January 1883 – 26 May 1962) was an Armenian-American survivor of the

Armenian genocide The Armenian genocide was the systematic destruction of the Armenians, Armenian people and identity in the Ottoman Empire during World War I. Spearheaded by the ruling Committee of Union and Progress (CUP), it was implemented primarily t ...

, memoirist, and poet. She is also credited with inspiring the creation of Rice-A-Roni which is based on her own recipe of Armenian

pilaf Pilaf (), pilav or pilau () is a rice dish, or in some regions, a wheat dish, whose recipe usually involves cooking in stock or broth, adding spices, and other ingredients such as vegetables or meat, and employing some technique for achieving ...

Life

Captanian was born in

Merzifon Merzifon is a town in Amasya Province in the central Black Sea region of Turkey. It is the seat of Merzifon District.

, Turkey, and was a teacher in

Samsun Samsun is a List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, city on the north coast of Turkey and a major Black Sea port. The urban area recorded a population of 738,692 in 2022. The city is the capital of Samsun Province which has a population of ...

. During the Armenian Genocide in 1915, she was forced to march while pregnant from Turkey through the Syrian desert to

Aleppo Aleppo is a city in Syria, which serves as the capital of the Aleppo Governorate, the most populous Governorates of Syria, governorate of Syria. With an estimated population of 2,098,000 residents it is Syria's largest city by urban area, and ...

. Her husband was killed in the genocide. She named her baby son Tzavag, which means sorrow or pain in Armenian. She was one of the few survivors of the march from Samsun to Aleppo. After the Genocide, she wrote her memoirs, which were published in 1919 in a French translation, ''Mémoires d’une Déportée Arménienne''. They are considered an important contribution to Armenian Genocide research, since they were written shortly after the events. The book contributed to

Raphael Lemkin Raphael Lemkin (; 24 June 1900 – 28 August 1959) was a Polish lawyer who is known for coining the term "genocide" and for campaigning to establish the Genocide Convention, which legally defines the act. Following the German invasion of Poland ...

's research and his understanding of the Genocide.What you see before your eyes: documenting Raphael Lemkin's life by exploring his archival Papers, 1900–1959
- ''Journal of Genocide Research'', 2005 Also in 1919, Captanian was reunited with her two other sons whom she had entrusted to a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

family before the deportations. In 1920, Captanian and her sons moved to the United States, where she worked as a seamstress and sewed draperies for President

Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...

's home in

Hyde Park, New York Hyde Park is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States, bordering the Hudson River north of Poughkeepsie. Within the town are the hamlets of Hyde Park, East Park, Staatsburg, and Haviland. Hyde Park is known as the hometown of Fra ...

. In 1922 she published the Armenian original of her memoirs, ''Tzavag'', named after the son she was carrying through her desert march. She became a U.S. citizen in 1927.''New York, U.S., Naturalization Records, 1882-1944'' After

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, Captanian and her family moved to

San Francisco San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...

. While in San Francisco, she rented a room to

Lois Lois is a common English name from the New Testament. Paul the Apostle mentions Lois, the pious grandmother of Saint Timothy in the Second Epistle to Timothy (commending her for her faith in 2 Timothy 1:5). The name was first used by English C ...

and Tom DeDomenico. Captanian taught Lois how to make Armenian pilaf and in 1955 Tom and his brother

Vincent Vincent (Latin: ''Vincentius'') is a masculine given name originating from the Roman name ''Vincentius'', which itself comes from the Latin verb ''vincere'', meaning "to conquer." People with the given name Artists *Vincent Apap (1909–2003) ...

, who worked at the Golden Grain Macaroni pasta company founded by their father, came up with the initial recipe for the rice-and-macaroni mixture they called Rice-A-Roni. She died in

Monmouth, New Jersey Freehold is a borough in and the county seat of Monmouth County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey., National Association of Counties. Accessed January 21, 2013. Known for its Victorian era homes and extensive colonial history, the borough is lo ...

, aged 80. She was survived by her sons Herant (Grant), Aram, and Tzavag (Gilbert).

Bibliography

* *Captanian, Pailadzou A. ''Ցաւակ''. (Yerevan: Tparan, 1922)

References

1883 births 1962 deaths American people of Armenian descent Armenians from the Ottoman Empire Armenian genocide survivors Witnesses of the Armenian genocide Foreign nationals imprisoned in the Ottoman Empire American expatriates in the Ottoman Empire Armenian refugees Armenian emigrants to the United States People from Merzifon {{Armenia-genocide-stub