Lila Bell Barbre
Lila Bell Barbre passed away April 8, 2013 in her Ephrata home. She was born January 12, 1920 in Creston, WA, the second of five children to George and Amy (Simons) Bell. She was an alumna of Creston High School, the valedictorian of the class of 1937. She was a farm cook, a nanny, and during WWII, she worked at Fairchild Air Force Base installing gyros into the cockpits of fighter planes, working her way up to supervisor. She obtained a Master Mechanic license. She married James K. Barbre on February 14, 1946, eloping to Missoula, MT. She and Jim first settled in the Spokane Valley and raised her sister June's baby, Billy Depner, until he was 3. Their daughter, Julia, was born in 1951. In 1952, they moved to Soap Lake when Jim became his brother Verne's farm manager. Daughter Cherilyn and son James were born in Soap Lake in 1956 and 1958. In 1964, they bought the Dean Smith wheat farm, two sections of the best farmland west of Ephrata, and they moved to the old farm house in the middle of the wheat field. They farmed until retirement in 1976, when they moved into Ephrata.
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