She married Charles Hancock at the Lakes Entrance Presbyterian Church on 13 October 1951.The Hancock’s trucking business had come to Lakes Entrance after World War 2 to service the fishing industry.

After leaving school in the late 1940s, Shirley worked in Freeman’s drapery department. She was an usherette at Broome’s picture theatre until her marriage, and also did weekend shifts at the telephone exchange.

Shirley became an observer in the local Volunteer Air Observer Corps during the war, and is now the only surviving female member able to recall those anxious days.

After the war, she worked at John Lawrence’s Big Store for a short time and during the late 1960s owned the haberdashery and ladies fashion shop Sharonne, where the National Australia Bank is now.
Moving on, she became the ladies fashion buyer for Foards of Bairnsdale during the 1970s and early 1980s, a position she really enjoyed.

Other highlights of Shirley’s life include

• being part of the team feeding fire-fighters beyond Buchan during the devastating bushfires of the 1960s
• being president of the school mothers’ club for four years
• writing to a ‘fuzzy wuzzy angel’ after the war
• hosting a Legacy child for school holidays each year.