Darlene Faye Gillespie was born in Montreal, Canada. Her parents were Herbert Laurence Gillespie and Rean Tibeau, a former dance team under the name Aldare & Tibeau, who were originally from Saskatchewan. In October 1942 they took Darlene and her older sister Patricia to Los Angeles. There Larry found work at Douglas Aircraft in Long Beach, while Rean made a movie at Republic in 1945.
