Cora A. Smith (nee Jones), painter and printmaker, was born in California on February 22, 1875.  She wed Walter D. Smith and the couple settled in Ocean Beach, California. They were listed as living at 4119 Voltaire Avenue.

Smith specialized in color monotypes and her work was included in the California Pacific International Exposition in San Diego in 1935 and in the Golden Gate International Exposition of 1939. Her monotype San Diego Back County was included in Joann Moser's groundbreaking exhibition, Singular Impressions: The Monotype in America, mounted at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in 1997. San Diego Back County is illustrated in the accompanying exhibition catalogue on page 107.

Cora A. Smith died in Ocean Beach, California on 16 May 1942.