Born in Oakesdale, Washington,[citation needed] Maynard was the daughter of Mr and Mrs. C. Floyd Huling, and she grew up in Bennington, Vermont.

[1] They divorced when Maynard was five, and her mother worked in Chicago, Illinois, as a nurse and receptionist for Edmund James Doering, who became her lover as well as a father figure for her.

Maynard spent several summers in Westbrook, Connecticut, with her grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Lyman Simmons, and frequently traveled abroad with her mother and Doering.

Encouraged by her mother to go on the stage, Maynard made her Broadway debut in 1913, playing the role of "Doll" in Prunella; her success in that production led to an offer of a contract from Famous Players Film Company.

Richard Field Maynard died of heart failure in 1963, and Lorraine committed suicide with an overdose of barbiturates in her home in Old Greenwich, Connecticut, in 1971.