Martha Lou Smith

Martha Lou Smith, 1944-2025

A Life Portrait by Sam Smith

Martha Lou Smith, beacon of love to those who knew her, has breathed her last and is gathered to her people. She died on August 19, 2025, surrounded by three generations of family. After living with dignity and grace for 17 months with a terminal diagnosis of glioblastoma, she found the peace which passes all understanding. She was 81 years old.

Born August 2, 1944, in East Los Angeles, she was the seventh of 11 children to Tito Trammell and Melita Medina of Guadalupita, New Mexico. Tito was a gardener and a Foursquare minister; Melita kept the house, raised the children and sold Avon to support the family. Growing up, Martha shared a bed with her elder sisters Cecily and Ruth. From an early age, she helped Melita run the household and raise younger siblings Joe, Mary, Edie and Jimmy, while elder brothers David, Titus, John and Jake played teenage sports and gradually moved out on their own.

Awkward childhood memories later became stories to cherish and make the family chuckle. When her brother Joe forgot to empty the trash one night, Martha lit a match to the garbage, hoping to shield him from Tito’s ire; her panicked cries of “the house is on fire!” threw the sleeping house into uproar until Tito rose from bed in his boxers to vanquish the flames with a garden hose. Recoiling at peas on her dinner plate, she would stash them on a ledge underneath the dining table. Her secret seemed safe until one day, her father had to move the table. When he flipped it over, dried peas from many family meals scattered everywhere. Tito laughed.

Martha attended Riggin Ave Elementary School (now Morris K. Hamasaki) in East Los Angeles. A bright student, she skipped a grade in middle school when the family moved to Pico Rivera. She graduated from El Rancho Hill School in 1961, age 16. A brief stint at L.I.F.E. Bible College (founded by Aimee Semple McPherson) proved a poor fit, so she quit school, moved in with her sister Ruth and got a job. She filled orders at Sears and Roebuck and worked in an office in Los Angeles.

One evening, Ruth’s husband Tom brought home his El Camino College classmate and fellow Mobile filling station mechanic Sam William Smith to meet his sister-in-law, Martha. Sam (“Willie” as he was called then) was smitten and persistent. On their first date, he took her and her sister Mary to see West Side Story. They married on June 26, 1964, and honeymooned with a road trip up the coast to Monterey Bay and Carmel. They enjoyed dinners at Tony’s on the Redondo Beach Pier, and for years, Sam brought her a single red rose each Friday. They settled in Torrance, where Sam worked for the City’s Building Department. Sons Sam Wesley and William Joseph were born in 1971 and 1976.

Their lives changed forever, however, on Valentine’s Day, February 14, 1981. A motorcycle accident in the Palos Verdes Hills nearly cost Sam his life, breaking his pelvis in seven places (a medical record). After a year in recovery, he was able to return to work and walk with crutches, but the physical suffering he endured from his injuries took its toll on marriage and family. They separated in 1989 and divorced in 2003, yet remained on affectionate terms, gracefully spending holidays and special occasions together out of respect for each other and shared love for their children.

As her boys became older, Martha returned to the workforce in 1985. She began as typist and clerk in Torrance for the Police Department and City, then learned short-hand and became a legal secretary for Jerome L. Bleiweis and Powars & Treatheway. But it was at El Camino College that Martha made her mark. In a career spanning more than 30 years (1989-2020), she became a well-known and highly regarded staff member and alumna, universally admired by faculty, administration and students.

First employed in the Fine Arts Department, she soon transferred to the Nursing Department, where she became administrative assistant to the program director. She flourished in this role for some 16 years, earning the confidence of multiple directors and notice by administration. She achieved a lifelong aspiration in 2003 when she graduated from El Camino with an associate degree in communications. She gave the graduation commencement speech for the nursing class, was named Distinguished Staff in 2007 – an accolade awarded to a single staff member each year by the college president – and was honored at the college’s 10th Annual Faculty & Staff Appreciation and Recognition Reception.

An auto mechanic and tenor saxophonist who played spirituals in church, Ezekiel Ortega was Martha’s high school sweetheart; a favorite photo shows them as a couple at a school dance, dressed to the nines. 40 years later, Martha and Zeke reconnected and were married in San Fernando on April 30, 2005. Zeke settled with Martha in Torrance and got a job alongside her at El Camino College, working in the Automotive Technology Department. They separated in 2023.

But to leave things here would miss the heart and soul of Martha. A genuine Latina matriarch, what mattered most to her were “Three Fs” – faith, family and food, with perhaps honorable mention of music and gardening. A radiant, loving and generous spirit seemed to breathe through her life’s labors and leisure.

Anchoring all was her Christian faith, the bedrock and foundation of Martha’s life. A preacher’s daughter, she grew up hearing her father Tito’s sermons on Sunday. Martha truly lived her life like Jesus, treating others with gentleness, kindness, charity and compassion, without judgment. She was forgiving, mediated feuds and called loved ones and friends to heed the better angels of their nature. She prayed each day for blessings and spiritual guidance for her family, friends and coworkers. Her faith in God and in others brought out the best in people.

She and her husband Zeke attended King’s Way Community Church faithfully for many years. Zeke served on the board of directors and played saxophone on Sundays; Martha volunteered, served communion, sang and played cabasa on the praise team.

Whether relative, friend or acquaintance, Martha was a maternal figure to all who knew her. She stated clearly that her life’s purpose was to love others the way she herself never felt loved, growing up as an invisible middle child in a large family. Family was her life’s work, the fruit of her faith in God. And with its seeds, she created a sense of family and cultivated community wherever she went.

She raised her sons with unconditional devotion, despite the strain of a disabled husband. The stories her sisters, brothers, nieces and nephews could share of how Martha changed their lives would fill volumes. Many, many people of all ages counted Martha as a second mother, honorary sister, or auntie.

She doted on her daughters-in-law Jennifer (Willi) and Carmen (Sam), but her granddaughters Josephine and Virginia were the apples of her eye. Martha played an indispensable role in helping Willi and Jennifer raise them from infants to teens. The girls spent many nights with their grandma, watching TV and learning to bake and cook. Among many other things, she taught Josephine and Virginia to sew, crochet and knit. Their creativity blossomed in her home, with Josephine musically gifted and Virginia an accomplished seamstress and talented artist, known for her custom decoration of tennis shoes.

Aside from her family and her relationships at church, the community where Martha made the greatest impact was El Camino College. Her purse swelled with gift cards from grateful students, who remembered her as the unofficial counselor that guided them through the nursing program. A Kaiser nurse she helped years before as a student recognized Martha in the emergency room this past May. He beamed with pride as he described his career and family, thanking Martha for her part in his success. She connected easily with people regardless of race or ethnicity, but she was an especially important mentor to the many Latina women she met because of their common heritage.

With so many siblings, the family kitchen of Martha’s childhood resembled a cramped restaurant. Her mother needed help, so Martha became assistant chef, learning to prepare the cuisine that Melita brought with her from New Mexico. She continued this tradition and became a great cook in her own right. Like her mother’s, her kitchen convened gatherings and created community for family and friends over many decades. They came to feast on enchiladas and taquitos, but Martha doled out kindness and love as much as food. After her retirement, her granddaughters eagerly looked forward to Taco Tuesdays and Thursdays with Grandma. (For more on Martha’s life and cooking, read the adjoining essay “New Mexican Cuisine: Food Is Family, Memory, and Tradition.”)

Martha leaves a legacy of family, community and food with her son Willi. Following the path his mother forged, he clears his calendar to help relatives and friends and opens his home, kitchen and pool to welcome neighbors, family and friends.

Her love of cooking may trace back to parental roots in the soil. Tito was a careful steward as a gardener; Melita planted flowers and grew fruits and vegetables. There were apple, avocado, kumquat, apricot, and orange trees in the backyard at Pico Rivera; blackberry and boysenberry bushes brushed against the fence. Martha inherited this green thumb; plants bloomed to her touch. She tended produce in her backyard and flowers in the front (roses were her favorite). Her young boys helped tend the garden. “If you put this seed in the ground and water it, it will grow and become pretty” she would say. On walks during her cancer treatment, she paused to point out the beauty of neighbors’ plants and flowers.

School music programs, lessons bartered for gardening and Avon, and hand-me-down instruments enabled Martha to study music with her sisters for several years. She played violin in her school orchestra, played piano and sang at Montebello Four Square Church, where Tito preached in Spanish on a Sunday. (Two of her favorite hymns, “In the Garden” and “His Eye is On the Sparrow,” were chosen for her celebration of life service.) In later years, she loved to play Beethoven’s Für Elise and Moonlight Sonata on the piano at home.

Though circumstances prevented the realization of her aspiration to become a professional singer and pianist, she patiently nurtured the training of both her sons and granddaughters. When Sam showed interest in music, she shuttled him to Los Angeles up to three days a week for lessons and rehearsals on violin and viola; he eventually became a professional choral musician. Granddaughter Josephine plays piano, guitar and rocks a Karaoke microphone.

A brunette with brown eyes and bountiful hair, Martha charmed others with her warm, open personality and youthful good looks throughout her life. Her smile was known to light up a room. True daughter of an Avon lady, she took pride in her appearance, loved to shop and collected jewelry, which she gave generously to those she loved, especially her granddaughters. Movie stars Lauren Bacall and Elizabeth Taylor were her role models for fashion and glamour. Martha’s appeal even caught the attention of Ray Charles. When the blind soul musician collided into her at Los Angeles Airport, he was overheard muttering, “I’d sure like to bump into her again!”

Martha loved to watch TV, especially murder mysteries and detective shows. Closer to the truth, she loved to fall asleep in the middle of murder mystery and detective shows. Among her favorites were Murder She Wrote, Columbo, Monk, Bull, Father Brown, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and, in later years, Call the Midwife. She had a sweet tooth, loved ice cream and, in a nod to her mother Melita, kept a candy dish fully stocked for visitors. Among her quirky sayings, her family’s favorites were “Oh, fiddlesticks!” “It’s the squeaking wheel that gets the grease,” “It takes two to tango” and “We forgot the Jello!”

“And in the end, the love you take/is equal to the love you make.” So sang The Beatles in Abbey Road’s “The End,” and so it was for Martha. Throughout her 21-month journey with cancer–from the first seizure on December 3, 2023, to her diagnosis and brain surgery in March 2024; from her treatment that spring to her final breath the following summer – Martha, her children and grandchildren were sustained by the love of family members and friends. Her sisters Edie and Mary, brother-in-law Steve, mother of her daughter-in-law Carmen Jean, nephew Kevin Willhite, granddaughters Josephine and Virginia, nieces Deanna Pryor and Lori Avellana, friends Brenda Gray, Joann Deaton, Nancy Cline and Marisol Cruz, and caregivers Rosalee Ortiz and Mary Luz Gomez provided indispensable care and support during her illness.

Martha is survived by her husband, Ezekiel; sons, Sam (Carmen) Smith and William (Jennifer) Smith; stepdaughters, Joya and Cynthia; granddaughters, Josephine and Virginia Smith; brothers, Titus (Linda), Johnny (Bethel), and Jimmy (Florence); and sisters, Ruth (Robert), Mary (Steve), and Edie (Scott). She was preceded in death by her parents, Tito and Melita; first husband, Sam; brothers, David, Joe, and Jake; and sister, Cecily.

Although Martha expressed her generosity through interpersonal rather than charitable giving, we encourage those so moved to contribute in her name to the charitable organizations that were important to her or her family: King’s Way Community Church, El Camino College (designation comment field: “Martha Smith to support ECC’s Nursing Program”), LA Mission and the National Brain Tumor Society.