Information: Mary Effie Shambaugh, author of books about international dance.

Mary Effie Shambaugh was born in Elvira, Iowa, of German-Swiss and English parentage. In 1914 she received her bachelor of arts degree from the University of Chicago; in 1916, the diploma of the Sargent School of Physical Education in Cambridge, Massachusetts; in 1920, the certificate of the Graduate Department of Hygiene and Physical Education at Wellesley College; in 1929, the master of arts degree at the University of Southern California; and in 1933, the degree of doctor of philosophy at the University of California.

Dr. Shambaugh taught English and Latin in the high school at Middlesboro, Kentucky, in 1914; was Director of Physical Education in the high school in Holyoke, Massachusetts, in 1916-17; and Director of Physical Education in the State Teachers College, Winona, Minnesota, from 1920 to 1923. She came to the University of California at Los Angeles in 1923, as Assistant Professor of Physical Education for Women, a position which she held until her death. She also taught on the Berkeley campus of the University in 1930-31 and in the 1932 Summer Session, and in the summer session of 1924 at the Santa Barbara State College.

She traveled widely in search of material for her field of work. The summer of 1921 she spent in England and Europe, visiting the colleges of physical education. In 1923 she visited the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, China, and the Philippines. In 1925 she studied, under an international scholarship, in Ireland, England, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, and Czechoslovakia.