[3] Shield’s mother was one of the first female press agents in the United States and an accomplished actress who had performed with Minnie Maddern Fiske, Joe Haworth and Sydney Armstrong.

[5] Shields first took to the stage as a young girl in vaudeville acts with her mother, two brothers and two sisters (Benn, Bernice, Santos and Sarah) performing for the Baldwin-Melville Company of New Orleans.

When she was replaced by a younger sister after it became apparent she had grown too tall to play children’s roles like Little Lord Fauntleroy or Little Eva, Shields quit the stage and found work as a reporter for the New Orleans World.

Shields also found the time to write a daily fairytale for the newspaper and pen a Sunday gossip column called "I Know a Girl".

[13] In 1918 Shields joined the Over-There Theatre League that, in December of that year, became the first company of American actors to tour postwar Europe.