Shirley Willsie Lee started writing when she was thirteen. She was editor of YOUNG YANKS ABROAD in Nurnberg, Germany, where her father worked with the war crimes trials. Since then, she became a registered nurse, has done freelance writing, taught, and is a fashion designer, besides being a wife and mother. Shirley started designing western clothes from KIMONO in 1980 when she lived in Japan where her husband was stationed with the U.S. Navy. She traveled all over Japan giving fashion shows. Two Japanese national magazines and numerous newspapers featured her in their publications. She calls her designs BIJIN (Beautiful people), in the belief that whoever wears them will enhance their inner beauty as well as having a beautiful garment. The Lees live in Lemoore, California. Two of their grown sons live in San Diego, the third resides in Monterey.