Ila Darlene Smith was born on June 7, 1919 in Baca County Colorado. She passed from this life at the Vici Nursing Home, in Vici, Oklahoma on June 9, 2008 at the age of 89 years and two days. Ila was the second of four children born to Ernest A. Smith and Ruth Hoover Smith, who were filing on land in Colorado. The Colorado prairie brought lots of struggles and hardship. When Ila was three years old her father died of tuberculosis. Her mother, a widow at 24 with four small children, was unable to provide for the family on the farm. With Ila and her three brothers, Garrel, Raymond, and Loyd, Ila's mother moved into Springfield, Colorado to find work.

In September, 1925 her mother married Emmett Wesley Ellis, a widower with six children; Hubert, Fred, Ruth, Winnard, Woodrow, and Harold. A year later, when Ila was seven, Emmett and Ruth moved their new family of 10 children to Oklahoma and settled on a farm four miles south of Sentinel. Four more children, Nixon, Claude, Yvonne, and Peggy were born into the family, making a total of 14 brothers and sisters.

Oklahoma proved to be a good home for the family, yet homesteading was hard work for everyone and Ila sometimes referred to the family's move from Colorado as "our cotton picking trip to Oklahoma." She attended Big Elk School until graduating from the eighth grade. But, each year when cotton season came around, the entire family headed out to the field to pick cotton. And, as anyone who has picked cotton knows, it makes you dream of something better. Sometimes when her mother would go to town, Ila would get to go along, and she wrote in her diary of standing on the corner near the bank, watching through the front window. As she watched the girls inside work, she dreamed that some day she could work in a bank instead of a cotton field. She graduated from Sentinel High School in 1938. Later she attended Hill's Business College in Oklahoma City. In March 1942 her dream of working in a bank came true when she returned to Sentinel and began working at the First National Bank where she remained for 14 ½ years.

In 1954 she married Carl Bailey of Vici. They made their home in Sentinel where Ila continued working at the bank she and Carl started their family. Ila quit her job at the bank to become a full-time mother in August 1956. They had two sons, Neil was born in November, 1956 and Scott was born in April, 1959. Carl was employed in construction work and the family moved to follow Carl's work. They lived in Carnegie, Woodward, and Fairview, Oklahoma, Perryton and Follett, Texas and Jerome, Idaho.

In 1964 they moved to Vici and settled on Carl's farm three miles east of Vici. They raised cattle and enjoyed country living in the home that Carl built on the farm. Carl continued to work in construction while staying close to home. Ila worked as a substitute teacher, a Teacher's Aide for the 1st Grade class, and a Nurse's Aide in the Vici Nursing Home. In May, 1976 she got an opportunity to return to her chosen occupation at the bank of Vici, where she worked as Head Bookkeeper and drive-thru teller for 12 years until her retirement in 1988.

Carl died in 1983 and after he was gone, living alone on the farm was not a happy time for Ila. She wanted to move into Vici, and considered selling the house when she received a call one evening from a man who said he was working for an iodine company. Ila believed it was an answer to prayer when she sold the home on the farm to Iochem in 1987 and moved into Vici. After retirement from the Bank of Vici, Ila moved to Cordell in 1999 to be near her sisters and brothers for a few years. She returned to Vici in 2002 to spend her remaining time near her oldest son Neil and his family.

At a young age Ila gave her life to Christ. Her faith in God was her greatest inspiration and throughout her life Jesus Christ was her constant companion. She was a member of the Church of the Nazarene where she served in several areas including Secretary of the Church Board, Treasurer for the Missionary Society, a member of the Board of Stewards, and a member of the Church Board for 31 years. She was proud to be recognized as the Vici Church of the Nazarene Mother of the Year in 1998.

In her free time she enjoyed sewing, reading, stamp collecting, and cooking. Ila was an unselfish person who truly believed it was more blessed to give than to receive. She was a volunteer for Literacy Council. She gave to numerous charities and opened her heart to her friends and neighbors in need.

She was preceded in death by her parents and step-father, Earnest Smith. Ruth Smith-Ellis and Emmett Ellis; by brothers, Hubert, Fred, Winnard, Woodrow, Harold, and Nixon Ellis and Raymond Smith; by sister, Ruth Patterson and her husband Carl.

She is survived by her sons, Neil and wife Terry of Vici, OK and Scott and wife Jessica of Round Rock, TX; by grandchildren, Dustin Bailey and Jody Bailey of Weatherford, OK, Braden Leatherbury of Woodward, OK, Fawn Robertson of Sharon, OK and Sandy Turner of Vici; by great-grandchildren, Bralyn and Makayla Leatherbury, Brandon, Ashton, and Kaylea Robertson and Alexandria Bailey; by brothers, Garrel Smith of Sentinel, OK Lloyd Smith of Huntsville, AR, Claude Smith of Sentinel, OK; by sisters, Yvonne Howard of Canute, OK and Peggy Berry of Cordell, OK; by many nieces, nephews, and a wealth of friends.