Shirley, born December 14, 1962, the 7th child of Eartley and Angiereen Washington in Charleston, South Carolina. Shirley was born into a musical family and started learning the piano, and organ in 1967 at five years old. By the age of ten, she began playing in local church services.

Eartley Washington, Shirley’s father, was a multi talented church musician in the House of God Church, Keith Dominion, under the leadership of Pastor Elder Leroy Middleton. Eartley played piano, organ, harmonica, and Hawaiian steel guitar, all of which he imparted in his children and grandchildren.

Shirley along with three other brothers, were influenced by their father to carry on the steel guitar legacy. At the tender age of twelve, she started practicing on her father’s steel guitar and after much preparation, she started playing the steel guitar in local House of God Church services in 1974, establishing herself as the second female steel guitar player in Charleston SC.