Helen Story Desmond Smith
Oct. 22, 1935-June 19, 2025
Alamo, California
Helen Story (Tori) Desmond Smith died at age 89 on Thursday, June 19, 2025, in Walnut Creek, CA after a brief illness. Tori was born on October 22, 1935, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Humphrey Earl and Janet Johnston Desmond. She was one of seven children. Her father, Humphrey, was the editor of The Catholic Herald Tribune and her mother, Janet (Jay), was an accomplished coloratura soprano. The family often sang together in four-part harmony and Tori accompanied her mother’s singing on the piano. Tori loved to tell stories about Lake Beulah, where the family spent many happy summers. In Milwaukee, she attended St. Robert’s Elementary School and Holy Angeles High School, then spent two years at Marymount College in Tarrytown, NY.
Tori was an avid reader and shared that love with her six children and her many grandchildren. She loved to play piano and to sing. Her rendition of “Ragtime Cowboy Joe” was a favorite. She was enthusiastic, engaged, and game to try new things, including boogie boarding in her 70’s! She did not shy away from adventure, spending several years living on a sailboat cruising along the coasts of California, Baja, and the Gulf of Mexico. She published articles about the sailing life during that time. In later years, she wrote and published several children’s books and stories.
Tori was a loving mother, grandmother, and great grandmother; devoted wife of 35 years to Keith Smith; sister, aunt, and loyal friend to so many. She is survived by her sister, Sister Janet Desmond, BVM, and her children Janet Blommer Jennings (Jeff McPhail), Henry Joseph (Joe) Blommer III (Ann Tozier), Ann Story (Tori) Blommer-O’Malley (Tom O’Malley), Mary Blommer Carreno (Michael), Peter William Blommer (Ellen), and Stephen Johnston Blommer (Chuck Holzwarth) from her first marriage to Henry Blommer, Jr.
She will be remembered for her zest for life, her great sense of fun, her love of discussion on any subject, her flair for the dramatic, her resilience, and her capacious heart. She will be deeply missed.
