Priscilla Merrifield Spaulding was born in Springfield, Massachusetts on December 22, 1898 to Edwin Rufus Spaulding, foreman of the Springfield Printing and Binding Company and Mary Colburn Spaulding. She attended Central High School in Springfield before entering Mount Holyoke College in 1915. She majored in English, economics and sociology and graduated in 1919. From 1919-1923 she worked as Society Editor for the "Springfield Union" newspaper. On September 29, 1923 she married George B. Sheppard, an Assistant Superintendent of the Houston Gas and Fuel Company in Houston, Texas. The couple had three children. Between 1934-1956 she worked as a salesperson and assistant to Sheppard while he was the owner and manager of the Carolina Suburban Gas Company in Laurens, South Carolina. After her husband's death in 1956, she was the president of the company until 1961. She also gave violin lessons and played in the Spartanburg and Greenville Symphonies. In addition, she acted as Mount Holyoke College Class of 1919 president, 1980-1991. She died on May 7, 1991 at age ninety-two in Laurens, South Carolina.