Shirley grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas and graduated from Kansas State University in 1973. She lived and worked in Kansas City for many years teaching software classes at Johnson County Community College. She also taught junior high students at a parochial school.
She moved back to western Kansas in 2005 to be near to her mother when her health was failing and bought a fixer upper home and remolded it herself. She met her current husband, Bob Hoch, while living there.
When Bob retired from his optometry practice in 2015 they moved to Austin to get away from the cold winters and to be near to her son. She worked for her son company as their Office Manager and IT Manager until retiring in 2020.She has two granddaughters here in Austin and a grandson in Chicago.Her mother was Italian, and she is planning a trip to Italy next year to visit family.