Shirley D. Stainton (née Hall) was born in February 1927 on a farm near Spooner, Saskatchewan. Shortly after her birth, her family relocated to the Slocan Valley in British Columbia. While growing up, Shirley lived in many mining communities throughout the region, many of which are ghost towns today. After the Second World War, Shirley married a returned soldier named Fred, and they went on to raise three children. They retired in Balfour, BC, close to their roots. Shirley still lives there, in the house on the lake that Fred built for her.