Shirley Evans played accordion for British royals at Buckingham Palace, Flamenco great José Greco, diners at Key Biscayne’s Rusty Pelican, 4,000 Shriners in Pittsburgh — and the Beatles.

Evans was born Jan. 29, 1932, near Liverpool, England, came to South Florida in 1976 and became a U.S. citizen in 2000. She had a unique career performing, writing childrens’ books and ballet music. She also recorded polkas and worked with International Artists Series Inc. as director/consultant.

Shirley Evans died July 10, 2010 of breast cancer at Baptist Hospital, according to Robert Owens, her companion of 34 years and partner at International Artists. Evans met Owens in 1972 en route to a cruise-ship gig with her former professional partner, Donald Hulme, a two-time accordion World Champion.

In addition to Owens, a brother and two sisters in Australia, Evans leaves two accordions– a Scandalli that John Lennon once played and a rare, extended-keyboard Hohner — and a unique musical legacy.

Shirley was backed by George, Paul and Ringo, with John as the producer in an Abbey Road Studios recording session. Other career highlights included backing Cliff Richard at the 1968 Eurovision Song Contest, when he came in second with Congratulations.

According to program notes from the Greco concert at the Dade County Auditorium in 1978, Evans appeared with Engelbert Humperdinck, Victor Borge, George Jessel and Liberace. At 26, she hosted a British quiz show called Claim to Fame. She played the accordion on top of Mount Fuji in a bikini and appeared as Mabel, the Black Label girl, in Carling beer commercials. She also toured in USO shows, and was “Auntie Shirley” in a Hong Kong children’s television show.

In 1999, she composed 40 minutes of music for the world premiere of the ballet “Twin Flame” at Texas Tech University. She wrote additional music, “Pretty Snowflakes”, for a St. Petersburg Classic Ballet Theatre performance of “The Nutcracker” last December at the Dade County Auditorium.

She considered the Beatles “her brothers,” Owens said, and they liked her because she was “sweet and nice, not pushy.” “To me they were lads from the same neighborhood with the same sense of humor,” she once said. They gave her 45 rpm pressings of Wild Accordion and told her, `We want you to make a lot of money from this,’ ” Owens said. She never did, but had hoped to put the song on a CD with her own compositions and release it with a memoir.

Evans fell in love with the accordion as a small child. In an interview with Rob Howard, she said she was discovered by a sheet music vendor who introduced her to a booking agent. An entertainment agency signed her and sent her to Austria and Italy with the Tessie O’Shea Show! to entertain British troops. Shirley toured the Middle East with Radio Bandbox Show and had her 21st birthday in the middle of the Sinai Desert billed as the “Accordion Starlet”.

She said that the Beatles found her while she was touring in Scotland in 1967. “When I got back to London, I got a call from someone asking me if I wanted to entertain with the Beatles on a bus. I thought someone was making a joke, so I said, `Let me think about it.’ A few days later, she received another call and was convinced.”

Owens said that Evans was “spiritual and kind,” traits that served her well during a USO tour to Vietnam War wounded at Veterans Administration hospitals.

Shirley had a long career and her accomplishments included playing the accordion in the Beatles film ‘Magical Mystery Tour’ and three Royal Command performances, one of which was at Buckingham Palace. She has the unique distinction of having an accordion solo, ‘Shirley’s Wild Accordion’, written for her by John Lennon. The recording of this piece, which features backing by George Harrison, Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, was deleted from the final edit of the film, and to this day lies unissued in the vaults at EMI in London.