When Etta Luellen Bayless was born in 1893, in Warrensburg, Johnson, Missouri, United States, her father, John Lloyd Bayless, was 36 and her mother, Sarah Elizabeth Thomas, was 37. She married James Levi Derrick on 4 January 1912, in Ellis, Oklahoma, United States. They were the parents of at least 5 sons and 2 daughters. She lived in Lipscomb, Texas, United States in 1935 and Higgins, Lipscomb, Texas, United States in 1940. She died on 21 October 1962, in Artesia, Eddy, New Mexico, United States, at the age of 69.