Molly Shi was born on June 11, 1943, in Ada, Oklahoma.
A citizen of the Choctaw Nation, her mother was a teacher and her father was a farmer near Stratford, Oklahoma.
She worked as a teacher before graduating law school and entering private practice.
[2] She was appointed as a special district judge for Pontotoc County in July 1975.
When her husband ran for the U.S. Senate in 1978, she reformed “Boren's Broom Brigade,” a group of volunteers that sold brooms and promised to clean up politics.