careers began at the age of fifteen when she became the favored neighborhood babysitter. Never one to let the "grass grow under her feet," a year later her 65-year music career began as a private piano teacher, church organist, and accompanist for the high school choir.

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She was accepted into the Charter Class of Oakland University, Rochester, MI, and graduated in 1963 with her first bachelor's degree. She was immediately began teaching first grade for Oxford Schools in Oxford, MI. In 1965 she moved to Rochester Schools and taught third graders before graduating to the sixth grade. In 1967 she earned a master’s degree from Michigan State University. In 1987 she added a Bachelor of Music degree from Oakland University and returned to the Oxford Community School District as an elementary music teacher. Her passion for singing and play the piano led her to foster in her students a love for music. A highlight of her music teaching career was when a second grader revealed he had tried to buy a recording of her singing at a local record store.

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Shelby Wagner is author of the award-winning memoir/self-help book, Learning to Dance in the Rain II – Surviving Grief, Internet Dating and Romance Scams, in which Wagner shares her transformation from grieving widow to “serial dater,” and from a scammer’s victim to her new singles lifestyle with several new friends and interests.

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Shelby Wagner was born in a humble Arkansas farmhouse, the same house in which her mother, aunts, and uncles were born. At nine, she relocated with her parents, a brother and sister, to Michigan. Wagner earned her first bachelor’s degree with the Oakland University’s Charter Class, and immediately began teaching first grade for Oxford Community Schools. A year later she accepted an offer from Rochester Community Schools to teach third graders. In 1967, Wagner earned a MA degree from Michigan State University, and in 1987 proudly added a second bachelor’s degree from OU, the coveted BMus with a double Major (organ and voice).

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Shelby Wagner was honored to be listed in the 1990-1991 Edition of Marquis’ Who’s Who in the Midwest for her “outstanding achievement” and, in the summer of 2021, the new author saw for the first time, an article she had written printed in the iPain Magazine. The book has brought other firsts as ads appeared in the New York Times Book Review, Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, BookMad, and the Readers’ Digest. The book also has garnered eighteen Five Star Reviews and nine book awards including a Silver Medal in the Living Now Book Awards in the Relationships and Marriage Category and the Book of the Year Award by the Independent Authors Network in the grief and hardship categories.