In a 1939 newspaper article, she recalled: "It was quite a radical thing, in that small town, for a little girl to conduct the church services and preach the sermon, but the congregation understood and were very kind to me.
"[4] Doty was a student at Hamline University in Saint Paul, Minnesota, (where she sang in the a cappella choir)[4] and worked as a catalog clerk at the headquarters of Montgomery Ward[5] when an opportunity for an acting career arose.
She competed in 1939 in the national finals of the Jesse L. Lasky radio contest Gateway to Hollywood, received a contract,[4] and remained in California to begin a film career under the name of Kathryn Adams.
[7] She married fellow actor Hugh Beaumont in an Easter wedding on April 13, 1941, at Hollywood Congregational Church.
[8] She earned a master's degree in educational psychology and had a career as a psychologist, working at the Footlight's Child Guidance Clinic at Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center and later in Minnesota after she moved back to her home state.