Stanley was born in Sandersville, Georgia, on December 19, 1931.[1] She left her home in Walhalla, South Carolina at the age of 15 and moved to Sebring, Florida to live with her older sister.[2] While competing in a festival in Leesburg, Florida, she met Newt Perry, a swimming coach, promoter, and consultant for movies that used underwater scenes. He hired her to be a professional mermaid at the Weeki Wachee Springs tourist attraction.[2][3] She worked there for 2 1⁄2 years.[2]
From 1953 to 1956, Stanley worked at Silver Springs as a swimmer and underwater performer with Bruce Mozert, a pioneer of underwater photography, becoming one of his "most recognized"[4] models.[2] At this time, she also had her two roles in the Creature from the Black Lagoon and Revenge of the Creature, filmed at Wakulla Springs and Silver Springs, respectively.
In 1956, Stanley married Albert V. Hallowell Jr. and they moved to Orlando, Florida. They had three daughters.[2] She hosted "Browsing with Ginger", a women's talk show on a local Orlando television station, and then spent twenty-three years as a runway model, working for various charities, department stores, and Walt Disney World.[2] Her husband died of heart disease in 1987.[2]
In 2012, she was inducted into the Mermaid Hall of Fame at Weeki Wachee Springs.[2]
As an actress, she had uncredited roles in four movies.
Stanley also appeared as herself in the documentaries, Creature Feature: 50 Years of the Gill-Man (2004) and Creature Feature: 60 Years of the Gill-Man (2014), about the filming and marketing of the horror film, Creature From the Black Lagoon.