Danna Beth Loori
March 23, 1951 — July 1, 2026
At 75 years of age, Danna Beth Loori of Belen, New Mexico, passed away on July 1, 2026, in Albuquerque. She was surrounded by love — which is fitting, because love was her answer to everything. Ask anyone who knew her what they remember first, and they will tell you about her smile: a warmth so radiant, one family member said, it felt like it could heal anyone’s aching heart.
Danna was born March 23, 1951, in Van Nuys, California, to Daniel Anthony Loori, Jr. and Lillian “Betty” Elizabeth (Maner) Loori. She adored her father — so deeply that she would one day pass his name on to a son of her own. She grew up in Southern California (Van Nuys, San Gabriel, Torrance, and Placentia) alongside her beloved older brother, Ron. Theirs was a churchgoing home filled with road trips, community, and camping. It was through church that five-year-old Danna met Dixie — a childhood friendship of Barbie dolls, summer camps, and shared holidays, years before Dixie married Danna’s big brother, Ron. Every other year, the family made the long drive across the country (without air conditioning, a detail Danna never failed to mention) to visit Granny and family in Smyrna, Georgia. In the off years, Georgia came to them. The open road was in Danna’s blood before she could drive it. She graduated from Valencia High School in 1969.
In 1972 she married Joe Groussman, with whom she raised two sons, Brandon and Daniel. Those years were rich with family: summer vacations and camping trips, holidays hosted at home or spent gathered around food at relatives’ houses, and family reunions. Her path eventually took her from Santa Ana, California, to Issaquah, Washington.
Danna spent her working life in motion and in service. Her driving career began in 1971 behind the wheel of a school bus for Taylor Bus Service in California. She went on to drive city buses for Orange County Transit and, later, school buses for the Issaquah School District in Washington. She devoted her final years behind the wheel professionally to students with special needs. Anyone who ever watched her handle a big vehicle knew how much quiet pride she took in it.
Her deeper calling was healing. A certified hypnotherapist, rebirth coach, spiritual counselor, reiki master, and ordained minister, Danna was a pioneer of metaphysical spirituality. She gave and received attunements before most people had heard the word reiki and practiced sound healing with singing bowls and toning. She taught everyone around her to visualize what they wanted to create, and never to limit what they believed they could accomplish. She gave her time as freely as her love. In the 1980s she volunteered with Project Self-Esteem at a local elementary school, where former students still recall the woman who saw them, believed in them, and with a few words and songs changed the direction of the rest of their lives for the better. In the late 1990s she spent three and a half years volunteering with hospice — years she called among the most impactful of her life, which taught her what matters and left her unafraid of death.
In October 1998, a phone call changed everything. At a sound-healing workshop in Bellingham, Washington, Danna had checked a box on a form asking about a spiritual community forming in New Mexico, a place her inner voice pointed her toward, though she didn’t even like the desert. Gilbert “Gil” Gray, in Sebastopol, California, was the one asked to call her back. One call became hours, and hours became days. By the time he picked her up at the airport for their first meeting in person, they already knew each other completely. From that moment on, they were simply together.
On April 4, 2000, in Kona, Hawaii, Danna married the love of her life — her soulmate, her business partner, and her favorite traveling companion. They bought a home together in Belen, New Mexico, and the desert she never thought she wanted became home for good. Together they ran Happy Heart Enterprises, wholesaling jewelry, crystals, and stones — a business that was really just her spirituality made portable, and one that carries on today with Daniel and Sarah. They piloted their RV across the country, working, wandering, and above all visiting the people they loved. In retirement, the road they shared belonged entirely to pleasure: cruises, snorkeling with dolphins, traveling the world to explore new countries and cultures — and always, always, spending time with family.
Danna was a mother to far more people than she gave birth to. So many called her “Mom” — or “their other mom” — that the family lost count long ago. She was the one who answered the phone late at night. She gave the best advice and the warmest, safest hugs, found vegan recipes so good you’d never guess they were plant-based, and could beat nearly anyone at Rummikub. With twinkling eyes, she laughed fully and often at herself. She never met a word she couldn’t pronounce her own way, and she’d beat you to the joke every time: “like Danna Banana,” she’d say. She didn’t take life too seriously, and she took loving people very seriously indeed.
A little rebellious as a girl, Danna kept that spirit her whole life — she went her own way and stayed true to her convictions. Her spirituality was vast and ever-evolving: she believed in the universe, in energy, in angels, and in the boundless goodness of people. She faced the end of her life with the same open heart she brought to all of it. She told her family that her body was only a vessel, and that she gets to be a guardian angel now, always looking over the people she loves. “I trust,” she would say, “that everything is as it should be.”
Danna is survived by her husband, Gil Gray, of Belen; her children, Brandon (and Emily) Groussman and Daniel (and Sarah) Groussman; her stepchildren, Dan (and Paula) Gray and Julie Gray; her chosen children, Lynn (and Ian) Vaino and David Duran; her grandchildren, Kayla Groussman, Nicole and Ryan Gray, and Lillian and Jonathan Gray; her brother, Ron (and Dixie) Loori; her nephew and niece, Aaron Loori and Mandy Thompson, and their families; and many beloved cousins, extended family, and dear friends. She was preceded in death by her parents; her uncle, Delbert Harvey “Harry” Maner; and her aunt, Marjorie May Loori.
In lieu of flowers, honor Danna the way she would love best: treat yourself to a delicious vegan meal and talk someone into a game of Rummikub afterward. If you still feel moved to give something in her name, a gift to your local hospice (work she held close to her heart, and people who were so good to her) would honor her deeply.
When her son asked her what he needed to know in life, Danna gave him the answer she lived by. It was among her final words, and it is the advice she leaves with all of us:
“Love is the answer,
regardless of the question.”
A celebration of Danna’s life will be held Sunday, September 6, 2026, at her and Gil’s home in Belen, New Mexico, and all who loved her are welcome. Those who cannot attend in person may join by Zoom — details and RSVP are here.