Here is Shirley’s timeline:
1948 — Sumatra
Shirley is born.
Early 1950s — Circus life begins
Captured when young and eventually brought into the American circus world.
1958 — Cuba
The Kelly-Miller Circus becomes caught up in the Cuban Revolution, with Shirley and the circus held for several weeks before being released.
1963 — SS Fleurus
The circus ship catches fire at Yarmouth. Shirley survives, although she suffers burns and loses part of an ear.
Highway accident
Another extraordinary escape. Shirley survives an auto accident in which two other elephants die.
1974 — Broken leg
She suffers a badly broken hind leg during an encounter with another elephant but survives an injury that could easily have ended her life.
1977 — Louisiana
Shirley moves to the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo. She becomes its only elephant and remains there for 22 years.
1999 — Tennessee
Solomon James accompanies Shirley to the Elephant Sanctuary.
Shirley and Jenny desperately try to reach one another through the barriers. People eventually discover they’d performed together decades earlier in the circus. They became inseparable for the next 7 years.
2006 — Goodbye to Jenny
Jenny dies. Shirley continues living at the Sanctuary.
2021 — Shirley dies at 72
That’s a lot of ground that Shirley covered: Sumatra → America → Cuba → Nova Scotia → Louisiana → Tennessee.
Shirley and Jenny
