Minnie M. Shockley was born in Indiana and was educated at the University of Missouri and Chicago University. She was a teacher at William Jewel College, a college in Warrensburg, Missouri, and a high school teacher in Joplin, Missouri, before coming to Northwestern State College (now Northwestern Oklahoma State University) in Alva to serve as an assistant in the English Department (1910-1917). She became the Dean of Women in 1917 and served in that position until her retirement from the school in 1941. Miss Shockley demonstrated her ability as an economist and business manager in several projects related to the school and took an active part in community civic affairs. She was historian of the Third District of the Oklahoma State Federation of Women’s Clubs and received the Oklahoma Education Award for Distinguished Service in 1930.