Shouse was the first woman to get a master's degree in education from Harvard University. She worked in the Women's Division at the US Department of Labor and in 1920 wrote a ground breaking book on careers for women. When President Calvin Coolidge appointed Shouse to head the Federal Prison for Women, she became the first woman to chair a prison board.

Shouse was the first woman appointed to the National Democratic Committee and was a founder of the Women's National Democratic Club. Her good works for cultural and humanitarian causes filled pages. An early supporter of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, she donated the pipe organ that dominates the Concert Hall.

But Wolf Trap Farm Park, which opened in 1971, when Shouse was 75, was her crowning achievement. The US Park Service had agreed to maintain the grounds and the performance space, but Shouse created the Wolf Trap Foundation, the group responsible for picking the talent that would perform at the park and raising the money that would keep it going and growing.

In 1982 Shouse came home to her house on F Street to learn that Wolf Trap was on fire. She drove to the park and stood there, taking in the devastation, Carol Harford recalls. The next morning she called President Reagan to announce her intention to raise the money to rebuild.

When Shouse died in 1994, her legacy had grown far beyond Wolf Trap. One of the artists she encouraged was dancer Edward Villella, creator of the Miami City Ballet. Said Villella after her death, "She really was a grande dame, in the finest sense of the word. She was one of the most inspiring individuals I've ever met."