She made her Cincinnati Opera debut as a soloist in 1985 as Inez in Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers.

In addition, Shockley wrote a music column for Cincinnati's suburban newspapers, and was the opera company's archivist and newsletter editor for many years. Eldred Thierstein's Cincinnati Opera: From the Zoo to the Music Hall, published in 1995, features a forward written by Shockley.

"The book wouldn't have happened without her," Thierstein told the Enquirer. There wasn't anything about opera she didn't know."