She settled in Corpus Christi and performed locally until the fall of 1955, when the redhead was offered a regular role on ABC-TV's Ozark Jubilee in Springfield, Missouri and signed a recording contract with ABC-Paramount.

[3] In 1956, she released her first singles on the label under her Jubilee stage name, Shirley Caddell, and made a guest appearance on The Eddy Arnold Show.

In 1958, she left Springfield to tour with The Philip Morris Country Music Show based in Nashville, Tennessee, where she met the show's manager and emcee, Hiram "Biff" Collie, a country music disc jockey on KFOX-AM in Long Beach, California.

[4] Starting in 1960, Collie released singles on the Liberty Records label with Floyd Tillman, Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys, and Clyde Beavers.

[6] In 1962, Collie was offered the role of semi-regular character Pearl Bodine on the CBS-TV series The Beverly Hillbillies, but instead began touring with Nelson, playing bass guitar in his band.

As Nelson's career flourished, he talked her into staying home in Ridgetop outside Nashville, where she helped raise his three children by his first wife, Martha.