Lillian Shirley was a long time resident of Argyle, Maine. She worked in the admissions office at University of Maine and also took classes there, for which she did folklore projects in 1969 and 1970, life histories of John Sharpe and Ernest Kennedy, folksongs of Kennedy, Milldred Miller and Edward Murray, and folklore of of Argyle, Cardville, and Bangor, Maine. She was married and had four children.