Helen Darling was born and adopted by the Smith family in 1937. She spent four years with them before moving to live with her brother, Dan Darling's family, a milkman in West Los Angeles, in 1941. Meanwhile, the Smiths relocated to Rochester, New York. Helen attended Emerson Jr. High in Westwood Village, California, and University High School in West Los Angeles from 1936 to 1941. Interestingly, her classmate and neighbor, actress Faith Domergue, who was portrayed by Kelli Garner in The Aviator (2004),lived across the street from Helen on S. Carmelina Avenue in Brentwood.
As a young actress, Helen was under contract with Paramount from 1942 to 1943 and later with Republic. She notably played the leading lady in a few Westerns alongside Don 'Red' Barry and became Republic's Queen of the Serials.
In her personal life, Helen married Richard M. "Dick" Hearn, a UniHi classmate and returning Navy fighter pilot veteran, in 1945. The couple moved to South Bend, Indiana, where Dick attended Notre Dame University and earned his degree in Corporate Law before they returned to West Los Angeles. Helen gave birth to a daughter before Dick's untimely death around 1965.
Helen remarried in 1969 to Larry Bailey, the owner of a bakery in Northridge, California. Tragically, Larry passed away around 1980. Helen has since continued to reside in Northridge, California.
