Ethel Frances Briles (1893–1982)

Early Life and Family

Ethel Frances Briles was born on June 2, 1893, in Coffey County, Kansas, to Edward Grant Briles and Frances Artlissa “Artie” Ricketts Briles. She grew up in a close-knit farming family with three siblings: brothers Edward Osmond Briles and Glen Briles, and a sister, Lulu Belle Briles, who later married and became Lulu Belle Cope.

Census records trace Ethel’s early years in Neosho and Pleasant Townships in Coffey County. In 1895, the Kansas State Census lists her as a one-year-old in her parents’ household, and by 1900 she was seven, living in Pleasant Township. Ethel was still living with her family in 1905 and then in 1910, the family had moved to Liberty Township in neighboring Woodson County.

Marriage and Children

On December 29, 1912, Ethel married Earl M. Smith in Woodson County, Kansas. Earl was born around 1888, and by the 1920 census, the couple was living in Center Township, Woodson County. Earl was 31 years old, and Ethel was 25.

Together, they had two daughters:

• Juanita Smith, born November 7, 1913, in Kansas. She later married Cleo Smalling sometime after 1931 and passed away on March 5, 1988, in Kansas.
• Lulu Frances Smith, born January 12, 1917. Lulu married several times—first to a man named Morse in November 1937, then to a Lawson in April 1943, to a Franklin in February 1944, and to a Spengler in April 1953. She died on December 1, 1989, in Orange, California.

By 1925, the family had moved to Winfield in Cowley County, Kansas. However, by the 1930s, Ethel and Earl appear to have separated. In the 1930 census, Ethel is listed under her married name “Smith,” working as a dressmaker in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Later Marriages and Residences

Around 1935, Ethel married again, this time to Harry W. Darby, born May 31, 1880. Harry worked as a conductor, and the 1940 census shows the couple living together at 1113 Washington in Emporia, Kansas.

Harry passed away on May 6, 1944, at the age of 63. His funeral was held on May 9 in Emporia, and he was buried in Hope Cemetery in Hope, Dickinson County, Kansas.

After Harry’s death, Ethel remained in Emporia for a time. She worked at Newman’s Department Store and lived at 714 Constitution as of September 1944. A 1944 newspaper note mentions she was still working at Newman’s in November.

By 1947, Ethel had moved to Kansas City, Missouri, where she was living at the time of her mother’s passing. She later relocated to California, where she lived in Los Angeles by 1948 and was recorded as a saleslady in the 1950 census. She continued to reside in Los Angeles into the 1950s and had moved to Long Beach by July 1966.

Final Years and Death

Ethel Frances Briles Darby passed away on August 15, 1982, in Los Angeles County, California, at the age of 89. Her long life spanned nearly nine decades and multiple states, from rural Kansas to urban California.

Historical Context

Ethel’s life stretched across significant moments in American history. Born just before the turn of the 20th century, she grew up during a time of agricultural expansion and the early women’s rights movement. Her young adulthood was shaped by World War I and the women’s suffrage victory in 1920.

The Great Depression and World War II significantly influenced her adult life. As a single mother and later a widow, she demonstrated resilience by working as a dressmaker and saleswoman to support herself. She adapted to changing roles for women in the workforce during and after WWII.

Her moves from small Kansas towns to cities like Kansas City and eventually Los Angeles reflected broader migration patterns in mid-20th-century America, where many sought new opportunities in growing urban areas.

Sources:

• “Kansas, Births and Christenings Index, 1885-1911,” database on-line, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online October 2016), Ethel Briles.

• Social Security Administration, “U.S. Social Security Death Index,” database, Ancestry, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online October 2016), Ethel Darby, 514142329, before 1951.

• “Kansas, Births and Christenings Index, 1885-1911,” database, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.om : viewed online October 2017), Briles.

• Coffey County, Kansas, Register of Marriages and Births Vol. 4, Briles, 2 June 1893; digital images, Family Search http://www.familysearch.org : viewed online July 2018). Original Source: [Originalsource].

• Briles, Max, Compiler, editor, Briles Genealogy (Crandall, Kansas: Max Briles, aft 1952), p. 23

• 1895 Kansas Census, Coffey County, State Census, Neosho Township, Coffey County, Kansas, p 17, Image 8 of 72, E G Briles; microfilm, Kansas State Historical Society (Topeka, KS : viewed online January 2019)

• 1900 U.S. Census, Coffey County, Kansas, population schedule, Pleasant Township, Coffey County, Kansas, ED 432, Sheet 7A, Image 13 of 18, household 124, Briles Edward G; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online November 2017); NARA T623

• 1905 Kansas Census, Coffey County, Kansas, State Census, Pleasant Township, Coffey County, Kansas, page 18, Image 8 of 72, family 130, Briles E G; digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : viewed online January 2019)

• 1910 U.S. Census, Woodson County, Kansas, population schedule, Liberty Township, Woodson County, Kansas, ED 147, Sheet 2B, Image 4 of 16, household 39, Eddie G Briles; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online November 2017); NARA microfilm publication T624

• 1920 U.S. Census, Woodson County, Kansas, population schedule, Center Township, Woodson County, Kansas, ED 160, sheet 2B, household 48, Earl Smith; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online October 2016); NARA microfilm publication T625

• 1925 Kansas Census, Cowley County, Kansas, population schedule, Winfield, Cowley County, Kansas, page 34, Image 212 of 430, line 31, Earl Smith; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online 4 August 2025)

• Lineage application of , , Newspaper Clipping “Israel — Daisy Pearl Ricketts” (Briles.KS.070).

• 1930 U.S. Census, Reno County, Kansas, population schedule, Hutchinson, Reno County, Kansas, ED 23, sheet 7A (image 13 of 24), Image 13 of 24, household 187, Smith, Ethel F; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online July 2017); NARA T626.

• Polk’s Emporia (Lyon County, Kans.)  City Directory 1934 (Kansas City, Mo.: R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers, 1934), page 210, Smith, Ethel F Mrs slswn r402 Constitution; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online 4 August 2025).

• Polk’s Emporia (Lyon County, Kans.) City Directory 1936 (Kansas City, Mo: R. L. Polk & Co., 1936), p. 91, Darby, Harry W; digital imge, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online October 2016).

• 1940 U.S. Census, Lyon County, Kansas, population schedule, Emporia, Lyon County, Kansas, ED 56-13, Sheet 66, Image 56 of 64, line 76, Harry W Darby; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online 4 August 2025)

• Polk’s Emporia (Lyon County, Kans.) City Directory 1940-41 (Kansas city, Mo.: R. L. Polk & Co., Publishers, 1940), p 64, Darby, Ethel F; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online 4 August 2025).

• “About Town,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 1 August 1944, page 6; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• “About Town,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 12 September 1944, page 5; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• “About town,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 9 November 1944, page 10; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• “Emporian’s Mother Dies,” The Emporia Weekly Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 1 May 1947, page 2; digital image, Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• Los Angeles Exchange Telephone Directory (N.p.: Pacific Telephone and Telegraph Company, 1948), image 72, Ethel Briles; digital image, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online September 2018).

• 1950 U.S. Census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California, ED 66-1132, sheet 81, Image 29 of 39, line 16, Ethel Darby; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : viewed online 4 August 2025)

• “Ed Briles Dead,” Obituary, The Emporia Weekly Gazette, Emporia, Kansas, 2 August 1951; Newspapers.com (http://www.newspapers.com : online September 2015).

• “Ed Briles Dead,” obituary, The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 24 July 1951, p. 1; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• “Edward O. Briles Dead,” undated clipping, from unidentified newspaper; Crawford Family Papers, E. O. Briles Notebook; privately held 2015 by Marcia Philbrick, , Seneca, KS.

• “About Town,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 18 July 1966, page 6; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• State of California, “California Death Index 1940-1997,” Ancestry.com,  (www.ancestry.com : Los Angeles, viewed online (April 2017), Ethel F. Darby; California Department of Health Services.

• Marriage License Record, Woodson County, Kansas, [Page], Woodson County Courthouse, Yates Center, Woodson County, Kansas.

• 1920 U.S. Census, Woodson County, Kansas, population schedule, Center Township, Woodson County, Kansas, ED 160, sheet 2B, household 48, Earl Smith.

• Newspaper Clipping “Celebrated 50 Years of Married Life” (Briles.KS.069).

• Find a Grave, database and images, Find a Grave (www.findagrave.com : viewed online July 2018), memorial for Hary W Darby (1880-1944), Find a Grave Memorial no. #121659840, created by Misty VIbbert / Detar Bius, citing Hope Cemetery, Hope, Dickinson County, Kansas; accompanying photograph by Misty Vibbert / Detar Bius, Harry W Darby.

• “Celebrates 50 Years of Married Life,” undated clipping, from unidentified newspaper; Crawford Family Papers, passed down to Marcia Philbrick by Pauline Briles; privately held 2018 by Marcia Crawford Philbrick, 803 N. 8th, Seneca, KS 66538.

• “Obituary,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 6 May 1944, page 2; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• “Obituary,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 8 May 1944, page 2; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).

• “Obituary,” The Emporia Gazette (Emporia, Kansas), 10 May 1944, p. 2; Newspapers.com (www.newspapers.com : viewed online July 2018).