Sheila Kuehl
Kuehl was born Sheila Ann Kuehl in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Her father, Arthur, was an airplane construction worker at Douglas Aircraft. He was Catholic and her mother, Lillian, was Jewish. As a child actress she performed under the stage name Sheila James.
Sheila Chisholm
Sheila Chisholm was born on 9 September 1895 on the family property "Wollogorang", the centre of the locality now called Wollogorang, near Breadalbane, New South Wales, youngest child and only daughter of grazier Harry Chisholm and his wife Margaret (née Mackellar). Her paternal great-grandfather was Scottish and arrived in Australia with the Second Fleet in 1790. The Chisholms became wealthy members of the Squattocracy in New South Wales, and she was raised on "Wollogorang" with her two older brothers, John and Roy. As the only girl in a rough, male-dominated world, she often attempted to match and outdo the working men at tasks on the station. She recalled how she liked to "go out further than the furthest man" when swimming at Bondi Beach, until she witnessed a man lose his leg in a shark attack. Chisholm was also attracted to the arts and had a deep appreciation for Australia's flora and fauna. In her unpublished memoir, "Waltzing Matilda", she described her adolescent self as "a queer mix of romanticism and boyishness ... I was quite unconscious of my looks".