She won Obie Awards in 1966 for her performance in a Shakespeare in the Park productions of Love's Labour's Lost and Coriolanus[1] and in 1971 for sustained achievement.

This performance was followed by roles in Razzle Dazzle, The Insect Comedy, The Climate of Eden, Take a Giant Step, Jane Eyre, and The Power and The Glory.

In 1959, she opened the acclaimed musical Once Upon a Mattress, originating the role of Queen Aggravain alongside Carol Burnett and Joseph Bova.

[1][4] White attended Smith College beginning in the early 1940s;[1] she majored in sociology so she might follow her father into social activism, but she maintained a stronger passion for the arts.

[5] White worked for a short time as a proofreader for the Research Institute of America while also attending beginners' acting classes at New York's New School.

[7] In 1959, White played the role of the scheming Queen Aggravain in Once Upon a Mattress, in which Carol Burnett made her Broadway debut.

[8] She won the 1988–89 Los Angeles Critics Circle Award for her role as the Mother in Federico Garcia Lorca's Blood Wedding.

[1] In addition to the productions of Once Upon a Mattress, her television work included a 1979 stint on the soap operas The Edge of Night, A World Apart, and Search for Tomorrow.