Shelly came from a long line of Stoker women who were excellent knife throwers. That skill of theirs became so legendary that the ladies within the Stoker family became famous throughtout Camden County, like her ancestors were skillful knife throwers in the time when there were traveling circuses across America. Then another of her family performed on Broadway when the cabaret music genre was playing at the time. And Shelly's mother was perfoming her well known knife-throwing skills during the era of the hippie culture.