Born Helen Darling, she was adopted by the Smith family in 1937 and lived with them until 1941, when she left to live with her brother, Dan Darling's family, a milkman in West Los Angeles, and the Smiths moved to Rochester, New York. She attended Emerson Jr. High in Westwood Village, California and University High School in West Los Angeles, CA 1936-1941. Actress Faith Domergue (Kelli Garner portrayed her in Göklerin Hakimi (2004)) was in the same class and lived across the street from them on S. Carmelina Avenue in Brentwood. Helen was under contract with Paramount in 1942 and 1943, then Republic, and was Don 'Red' Barry's leading lady in a few Westerns, then became Republic's Queen of the Serials.

Helen married Richard M. "Dick" Hearn, a UniHi classmate and returning Navy fighter pilot veteran, in 1945; they moved to South Bend, Indiana, where he attended Notre Dame University and earned his degree in Corporate Law before they returned to West Los Angeles. They had one daughter before Dick died about 1965. In 1969, Helen married Larry Bailey, owner of a bakery in Northridge, CA. Larry died about 1980 and Helen still lives in Northridge.