Shirley Collie Nelson
American singer/songwriter (1931-2010)
Shirley Collie Nelson (born Shirley Angelina Simpson; March 16, 1931 – January 27, 2010) was an American country music and rockabilly singer, yodeler, guitarist and songwriter. From 1963 to 1971, she was the second wife of country star Willie Nelson.
Life and career
Born in Chillicothe, Missouri, to Alice (née Davis) and Henry Simpson, she sang at local war bond rallies during World War II as a child, and made a guest appearance on KFEQ-AM in St. Joseph, Missouri. In 1945, at age 14, Simpson replaced "Sue" on the weekday morning Millie and Sue show on KMBC-AM in Kansas City, and the duo also appeared on the station's Brush Creek Follies barn dance show. She bought her Little Martin guitar from the previous Sue, an instrument she would use for the rest of her career. Her first marriage, at 15, lasted until she was 19.
In 1950, Simpson moved to Texas to play with Bob Wills, Johnnie Lee Wills and other Texas bands. 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. 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.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Shirley Collie Nelson” as american singer/songwriter (1931-2010). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american singer/songwriter (1931-2010). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 2, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2697090. VIAF identifies the subject as 2218393. The Library of Congress control number is no2006040128. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1931, 2010, 1963 and 1971.
Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.
- Establishing names and roles
- Building a first chronology
- Locating cited institutions
Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Shirley Collie Nelson”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Shirley Collie Nelson primary sources, Shirley Collie Nelson archive and Shirley research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Shirley Collie Nelson”?
- How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
- Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Shirley Collie Nelson” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.