Shirley Ramaley was born and raised in Seattle, WA, where she earned her bachelor’s of science in medical technology (biology) at the University of Washington. She met and married her husband, Tom, and moved to Florida where he worked at Cape Canaveral.

Ramaley had three children during the ‘60s and their time in Florida. At this point, Tom was hired by the state of Arizona so Ramaley moved with her children to Phoenix where she earned her MBA at Phoenix University. She worked for Maricopa County Hospital for many years before becoming manager of a cancer clinic laboratory.

Ramaley worked in the pathology and clinical labs mostly in hospitals, and some clinics for 38 years focusing on chemistry, hematology and blood banking. During all this time she was writing in various venues and discovered that with children’s magazines especially, the editors welcomed photographs along with the articles and stories. So, in her ‘30s, Ramaley added photography to her list of passions.

This addition to her stories gave her an edge over other authors and she has had hundreds of her photos published in children’s books, magazines along with her poems and stories. Some of her work has been in the popular “Highlights for Children,” “Hopscotch for Girls” and all the “Bugs” including Cricket, Spider, Ladybug and Babybug.

Eventually, Ramaley had to leave her writing and most of her photography to care for her husband, her first passion in life. Three years ago, Ramaley moved to Sun City and was able to return to writing and has in her words “amp-ed” up her photography and is learning more every day.

“Writing and photography are fields you’re never too old to be active in,” Ramaley stated. “I am now in my ‘80s and I am hoping for years of these activities.”

View some of Ramaley’s work atsuncityaz.org/recreation/clubs/camera-guild-of-sun-city.