Ursula A. Smith

Ursula A. Smith, 87, passed away at her home on February 25, 2021, after a year of declining health. She was born January 3, 1934, the second of four daughters to Jules F. Bertero, MD, and Mary L. (Connolly) Bertero of Santa Maria, California.  Her childhood years were spent in Santa Maria, where she graduated as valedictorian of the local high school, then entered San Francisco College for Women—Lone Mountain—which has since been subsumed into the University of San Francisco, serving as student body president and graduating summa cum laude with a double major in history and English.

After teaching briefly at Mission High in the San Francisco school district, she married James F. Smith, settled in San Jose, and devoted her years there after to the duties—and joys—of motherhood.  In the early 1970s, she and her family moved to a farm in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, ultimately settling in Bozeman, Montana, a university town that proved to be a happy medium between the bustle of San Jose and the relative isolation of rural Belle Fourche.

She was divorced in 1987 and began a new period of her life with Linda (Sellers) Peavy, with whom she founded P.S., A Partnership, a writing and editing business.  Smith began her four-decade editing career with major publishers in the East but found her greatest satisfaction in working for university and historical society presses.  In due time she began researching and writing with Peavy, co-authoring numerous journal articles and a dozen books—primarily devoted to western women’s history—plus the libretto for composer Eric Funk’s Pamelia , Montana’s centennial opera. Their unique tandem-dialogue style gave voice to the women whose stories they presented on the Humanities Speakers Bureau circuit.  With Peavy, Smith moved to St. Louis in 1992 and then on to Middletown Springs, Vermont, where they continued their loving relationship and professional collaboration.

Ursula Smith is survived by Linda Peavy, her partner of some thirty-plus years—and loving caregiver of the past year—and by her six children who were her joy and her pride: James F. Smith, Jr. (Melanie) of Omaha; Joseph Smith (Anita Jog) of La Jolla, California; Christopher Smith (Terese) of Playa del Rey, California; Stephen Smith (Christian Sarver) of Salt Lake City; Ursula Durland (William) of Seattle; and Nora Smith (Camdon Draeger) of Bozeman, Montana. She is also survived by her six grandchildren—Lauren and Maddie Smith of Omaha, Beatrice and Henry Smith of La Jolla, and Hannah and Mara Durland of Seattle—by her former husband, James F. Smith of Bozeman, by her two sisters, Antonia Weldon (Tom) of Pebble Beach, California and Marta O’Rourke (Pat) of Huntington Harbor, California, by numerous nieces and nephews, and by Linda Peavy’s two children, Erica Hale (Andrew) of Sandy, Utah, and Don Peavy (Siri Eliasen) of Bozeman.

She was predeceased by her parents and by her older sister, Mary Theresa Torre (Gene) of San Jose, California.  She also leaves behind a loving circle of friends in Middletown Springs. Ursula's love of books was a constant in her life, and donations can be made in her name to Middletown Springs Public Library, P.O. Box 1206, Middletown Springs, Vermont 05757 - https://middletownspringslibrary.org/

Cremation has taken place and a celebration of her life will be held at a later date.

Arrangements by the Clifford Funeral Home.