She studied piano, voice and composition at Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland, Peabody Conservatory and Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1912.

She continued her studies at the University of California at Berkeley where she was the first to win the George Ladd Prix de Paris for composition in 1918.

Later in 1918, Koechlin was in San Francisco as part of Theodore Reinach's French cultural mission, where William McCoy recommended Urner as a student.

After leaving Mills College, she devoted her time to performing, composing and touring in the U.S. and Europe with the assistance of Charles Koechlin.

[2][3] She died in San Diego, and her papers are housed at the University of California, Berkeley Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library.