[2] The daughter of a prominent Portland, Oregon businessman, Burke studied art history at Bryn Mawr College before embarking on a short-lived career as an actress.

In addition to her career in entertainment, Burke also taught television production at Columbia University, and was the founder of the art history department at Reed College.

Her mother was Saidee (née Rosenberg), and her father, Charles F. Berg, was a prominent Portland news radio executive and President of the Pacific Coast Advertising Men's Association.

[4] Her father, a native of San Francisco, also founded the Charles F. Berg Company, a local Portland women's clothing chain,[5] and co-produced "The Hoot Owls," a pioneering radio sketch show for KGW.

[12] It was noted in a July 1, 1942 article in the Detroit Free Press: Some weeks ago, a petite New York miss named Caroline Burke came to Hollywood.

[13] She spent her later life living and working in New York City, where she was a theatrical producer, co-producing Broadway stagings of Paddy Chayefsky's The Tenth Man, and Brendan Behan's The Hostage.

[16] On August 7, 1945, Burke married camera manufacturing magnate Cyrus Max Adler at the Portland home of her brother, Forrest, in a private Jewish ceremony.

[10] Burke later married advertising executive Erwin D. Swann, who worked for the Foote, Cone & Belding Ad Agency; the couple resided in Manhattan at 24 West 55th Street.