Sheila was from Louisville and moved to Miami where she met Larry Coppala, who was home on leave from the Army, at the Pizza Palace on W. 49th Street in Hialeah. They married a week later before Larry shipped out for Europe. In 1967 she was on the front page of the Miami Herald with Vice President Hubert Humphrey while the VP taped a message to her husband Larry who was serving in Viet Nam at the time.