Kori D. Wallace

Kori D. (Determan) Wallace, 64, passed away March 24, 2026, from lung cancer at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. A celebration of life and burial will be held at a later date in Emery, SD.

Kori Diane Determan was born September 8th, 1961, to Robert and Cecilia (Edzards) Determan in Mitchell, SD. She grew up in Emery and attended a one-room country schoolhouse for 2 years, before starting in the Emery school system. She loved swimming and spent her summers riding the five miles into town to swim every day at the Emery pool. She was a 1979 graduate of Emery High School, where she played basketball and ran track. She also was a spirited softball player.

Wanting to see the world, she enlisted in the Air Force in August 1979. She and her former spouse Keith Wallace had two children, Scott in 1981 and Lyndsey in 1983. She served for 20 years in the Air Force, with assignments to North Dakota, England, Utah, Texas, and Germany. She and her family were visiting Berlin when the Wall fell, and she helped hammer chunks out of it with the celebrating Germans. After Germany, she returned home to South Dakota, spending the last eight years of her Air Force career at Ellsworth AFB, ensuring top notch training for a whole generation of Air Force leaders.

Every major holiday and long weekend (and sometimes short weekends) you could find Kori and her kids (and sometimes some extra kids) at her parents' farm in Emery or at Werner's Pasture in Chamberlain on a fishing trip.

Following her retirement from the Air Force, she took up Property Management in Rapid City, SD. After a few years, she followed her kids out to the East Coast and managed properties in Salem, MA. She bought a condo that had previously been a church and painted the cathedral ceilings and sky-high walls every shade you could think of from the Crayola box.

Kori loved games and puzzles and was an avid card player with a strong competitive streak. She spent hours with her family around the farm kitchen table every holiday, playing rounds upon rounds of Pinochle and loudly shaking the Boggle cube first thing in the mornings with her Mother during Christmas vacations.

She loved creamer in her coffee and a little Baileys with milk during the holidays. Kori never met a cat she didn't want to pet (or tame) and she spent many a weekend with her kids or her Mother at auctions collecting goods from decades past, be it salt and pepper shakers or historic farm equipment.

In her later years, she spent her time between South Dakota and the East Coast before moving out to the Boston area to live with her daughter and daughter's family in 2021. She adored her new role as Grandma, and relished spending time with all four of her grandchildren. She loved being on the East Coast for the contact naps with Gia and Anna and watching their first steps, and she delighted in her active granddaughters Maisie and Annie, watching them as they ice skated, performed gymnastics, rode horses, and learned to love games, too. She had an enthusiastic cackle, devilish sense of humor, and heart filled with love. While she might say her children were her greatest accomplishment, her grandchildren were her greatest delight.

She is survived by her mother, Cecilia Determan of Emery; her favorite son, Scott and wife, Lisa of Silver Spring, MD and their children, Margaret "Maisie" and Marian "Annie"; and her favorite daughter Lyndsey Liberti, and husband, Michael of Wilmington, MA and their children, Giavanna "Gia" and Adrianna "Anna". Also surviving her are her siblings, Gordon (Kay) Determan of Alexandria, Steven Determan of Emery and Kevin Determan of Emery, and multiple nephews, nieces and cousins. Preceding her in death was her father Robert Determan, in 2014.

The family would like to give a heartfelt thank you to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute of Boston for the world class care over the past 4 ½ years – allowing her last years to be defined by love and not cancer.

Arrangements are under the direction of the Nichols Funeral Home, Wilmington, MA. To leave a message of condolence for the family please visit our website at www.nicholsfuneralhome.com