Carol Elsie Storke
Silverton – Carol Elsie Storke, 88, of Silverton, Oregon, passed away peacefully on January 25, 2025, at OHSU in Portland after a brief illness. Carol was born on September 2, 1936, at Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, California, to Charles Albert Storke II and Barbara Bullard Storke.
Carol spent her childhood in Santa Barbara, where she developed her life-long love of horses and riding, gardening, history, opera and more. Her grandfather, Thomas More Storke, was the publisher of the Santa Barbara News Press, and she had many fond memories of her father’s early involvement in the newspaper business.
As a young woman, she moved to the east coast where she graduated from Smith College with a degree in Latin American studies, and later received an MA in Information Systems from Pace College in New York. She married Sidney Smith Whelan Jr. in 1959 at the Santa Barbara Old Mission, and then settled in New York City where they raised their three children.
In New York, Carol volunteered at the Vera Institute for Criminal Justice, then joined the staff. She worked on criminal justice legislation at the Community Service Society, bicycling to work on 22nd Street from their apartment on the upper east side. In 1976 she opened the New York City Office for the New York State Commission of Correction. She was divorced from Sidney Whelan the following year.
Joining the Mayor’s Office of Operations under Mayor Edward I. Koch, she set up the productivity program mandated by the federal government, moving to a loft near City Hall Park. After leaving city government, she designed computer systems for Datacom and subsequently opened her own consulting business, Whelan Associates. In 1990 she moved back to Santa Barbara to spend time with her ailing father, working first for Telos, then for Infogenesis, and retired in 1998. From 1992 on, she shared her life with Michael Townsend Smith, a writer and theater director.
She was introduced to horses as a child at her grandfather Bullard’s lemon ranch in Goleta and spent much of her childhood with her sister Barbie, roaming the hills of Santa Barbara on their ponies. Returning to Santa Barbara rekindled her love of horses, and she joined Sage Hens, a women’s riding club, and the Los Padres Trail Riders. She bought and trained a show horse and began competing in horse shows around California, winning championships into her 70s Beginning in 1999 she wrote a monthly horse column for the Santa Barbara Independent. As a board member of the Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation, she curated shows at the historic Casa De la Guerra ( on vaquero and ranching traditions in Santa Barbara.
Music was also an important part of her life. As a child she learned to play piano and accordion, and with her sister Barbie performed songs during Fiesta. In New York she played classical chamber music with friends and went to the opera whenever possible. She even wrote her own short opera, which aired on a local NYC radio station.
In 2003 she moved with Michael to the Willamette Valley, where she bought seven acres along Silver Creek with room for a horse barn, pasture, and vegetable gardens, fulfilling a lifelong dream. In Oregon she joined the Pudding River Watershed Council and was elected to the Marion Soil and Water Conservation District. She owned and trained a succession of horses, showing in mountain trail competitions at the Oregon Equestrian Center in Eugene and winning the open championship.Late into her life, she enjoyed horse-camping with friends in the Cascade mountain range.
Carol was predeceased by her sister, Barbara Conn, and her brother Paul Storke. She is survived by her partner Michael T. Smith; brother, Charles Storke III, and her sister Bess Wall; her daughter, Tensie Whelan and partner Russ Wild, daughter, Lora Whelan and husband Edward French, son, Sidney Whelan III and wife Lisa Waller; by granddaughters, Lora-Faye Ashuvud and wife Jordan Kisner, Genevieve Waller-Whelan and Gabrielle Waller-Whelan; many much loved nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.