She attended Lincoln Junior High School in Rockford, Illinois, and later the American Conservatory of Music, in Chicago, where she majored in vocal performance.
[1] After her family moved to Chicago, she continued to sing with bands at clubs and hotels, including at the Palmer House.
[2] In 1948, she played Katrina Van Tassel in the Broadway musical Sleepy Hollow and appeared in the revue Hilarities.
[7] Of her performance as Katrina, The Billboard commented that she "puts plenty of flirtatious appeal into her Dutch heroine, and is tops vocally.
In 1961, she replaced Lucille Ball in the lead of Wildcat and played Maimie (and understudied Mimi) on Broadway in Sail Away.
[10] She appeared in regional theatre roles in musicals including South Pacific (1955, 1963), The Pajama Game (1958), and Annie Get Your Gun (1961), and in nightclubs in the 1950s and 1960s.