Grace Hopkins Smith
Date Of Birth: 10/27/1930
Date of Death: 03/16/2025
Grace Smith, age 94 of Portland, Ore., passed away on March 16, 2025. Born Oct 27, 1930 to the late John and Alice Dellone Hopkins in Omaha, Neb., Grace was the youngest of five sisters. Beloved wife for 63 years of the late Thomas C. Smith, Sr. Grace was class president at Duchesne Academy of the Sacred Heart and attended Duchesne College in Omaha where she majored in English and was also class president, played sports and was in the drama club. She later attended Eastern Washington University where she studied astronomy and Portland Community College, studying accounting.
Grace met Tom Smith when they were in college, Tom at Creighton University and Grace at Duchesne. They were married April 7, 1951 and had three children: Lynn, TC and Cassie. They lived in several states and settled in Portland in 1974.
With her father’s background as an elected official and her mother’s role as a national non-profit president, Grace was also a political, educational, parish and community volunteer. In Montana, Grace chaired three political campaigns in the 1960s for Sen. Mike Mansfield, Sen. John F. Kennedy and Sen. Robert F. Kennedy. She attended John F. Kennedy’s presidential inauguration in 1961. In Spokane and Great Falls, Grace was her parish choir director and CCD teacher. She was always volunteering at her children’s schools as a tutor and room mother as well as Cub Scout and Girls Scout leader. She later was the CEO of her family business. She was actively involved in St Pius X Catholic Church for more than fifty years.
Grace loved both opera and sports. Every Saturday morning, she listened to the Metropolitan Opera broadcast and she was an avid follower of high school, college and professional basketball.
She spoke Latin and French and last year at age 93 – she took up learning Swahili. She did the New York Times crossword puzzles religiously. Grace knit thousands of layettes for Catholic charities. She was intellectually curious and always learning.
In addition to her parents and husband, Grace was preceded in death by her son TC Smith and sisters Mary Alyce Griffith, Marjorie Wear, Patricia Hopkins and Joan Hopkins, RSCJ. She is survived by daughters Lynn (Gregg) Schnitzer, and Cassie (Allan) Warman; daughter-in-law, Mary Anne Smith; grandchildren Mike (Krista) Schnitzer, Amy (Tom) Perry, James Smith, Cassie Smith and Christine Smith; great grandchildren Thomas Schnitzer, Madeline Schnitzer, Emma Perry and Lily Perry and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral Mass will be celebrated Friday April 11, 2025 at 11 AM at St Pius X Catholic Church in Portland with private interment at Willamette National Cemetery. Memorial gifts may be made to St Pius X Catholic Church or All Classical Radio Portland.