Leila Mae Barry

Leila Mae Billings came into the world on 7 November 1918, just as World War I was ending, and the 1918 flu pandemic was at its peak. She was born in Avoca, Michigan where the leading cause of death that year was influenza. The deadly flu strain swept the globe, killing more people than World War I. She came into a masked world, and left the same way.

According to her daughter, Sue, “She was wealthy…not in money or possessions, but in love, compassion, and kindness.” Attesting to this admiration is the fact that she has a niece, a grand-daughter, and great-great-grand-daughter named after her. She was never happy, unless she could give and serve others. She grew up happy with very few earthly possessions.

She was 13 when her parents separated, and she willingly accepted the responsibility of caring for her 6-year old brother, Ray. In addition, she would do the laundry, clean the house, and prepare most of the meals for the family. This was not easy since there was no running water or electricity available on the farm where she was raised. The only heat for the house was a fireplace. To iron the clothes, a flat iron was heated in the fire. If you needed to use the restroom, you walked outside to the outhouse, even in the frigid Michigan winters!

One memory she had of the old days was NOT recalled with fondness. Many families, including hers, used the Sears Catalog for toilet paper, if they were too poor to purchase such a luxury. She used to say, “The good old days were not always so good!” Her family’s only mode of transportation at the time was a horse and buggy.

At the age of 16, her formal education came to an end, when she married Bell Erwin Barry, a dashing young man from a neighboring farm. She enjoyed telling the story of their first date. They had gone to an indoor movie in the big city of Detroit. She recalled they had a marvelous time, until they walked outside to get into Bell’s Model T. After several minutes of looking around, they faced the grim reality that his $360 car had been stolen. They had to call for a policeman to take a report and give them a ride home. Not quite the happy ending they had hoped for a first date. Nevertheless, shortly thereafter they were married on 22 August 1935.

She continued to care for her younger brother, even after the marriage, when Ray came to live with them. Those early years created a bond between these siblings, that surely even death cannot diminish.

Two daughters were born to this marriage: Bertha Mae and Beverly Sue. When Bell left to serve in World War II, she not only cared for her girls, but she went to work in a sewing factory. After Bell was injured in the War, rebuilding a bridge for the infantry to cross into Germany, he was put on a hospital ship, returning to Michigan. She now also cared for her husband, who spent 9 months in a full body cast.

After his recovery, they headed west for the start of a new life and career of training race horses. This would last for the remainder of their lives. Leila worked as hard as any man, caring for the horses, carrying feed buckets, cleaning out stalls, raking the shedrow, and giving all the grandchildren rides on either Old Montana, a beloved pony horse, or on the hot walker.

Her grandchildren fondly remember that there were always fresh baked cookies in the cookie jar. We didn’t even have a cookie jar in our house. So, we would spend every moment of travel to her house imagining this magical cookie jar that was always full, usually of her world-famous Ranger Cookies. Between caring for family and horses, she didn’t have much time for any hobbies.

After retirement, her daughter, Sue, was ecstatic to show her the world. Leila loved every minute of these adventures, even recalling those times with great fondness, when she could remember little else.

She lived a long, rich life for 102 years, before her passing on 8 March 2021.

During her lifetime she went from riding in a horse drawn carriage to jet planes dotting the skies, and men walking on the moon. All seven generations of family, which she lived to know, from her grandmother down to the last of her 18 great-grandchildren and 26 great-great grandchildren, all have loving memories of her tender spirit, and self-sacrificing life.

Whenever there was a crust, a burnt piece of toast, or the smallest and least attractive morsel of food, that would be what she chose, making sure everyone else enjoyed the best. When Leila came to Texas 5½ years ago, she was 97 years young. She always made a concerted effort to notice what needed to be done. She ironed shirts, took out the trash and would take care of whatever the least desirable chores were around the house. When she was admonished to not work so hard, her reply was, “As long as I can give to others a little here and a little there, I’m willing to stick around. But the good Lord has promised that when I am no longer capable of such, He will take me home again.” And the Lord made good on His promise.