Her father died when she was young, and she was raised by her stepfather (hence her sometimes being referred to as Katherine Prosser).

[2] She attended high school in Savannah, Georgia, before moving to San Francisco to begin a career as a journalist.

[2] Hilliker was a graphic designer who was working in the fledgling motion picture industry, and after the pair married, she took an interest in the medium as well.

She and Clark would work on English titles for foreign releases at Samuel Goldwyn's studio.

[2][3] They later worked on titles at Fox (most notably on Sunrise),[4] though their career in Hollywood came to an end with the advent of talkies.