Young is best known for her songs "Hard Hearted Hannah", "Lovin' Sam The Sheik Of Alabam'", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Oh By Jingo!".

Young began her professional career in Detroit, Michigan.

Young first recorded commercially for the Victor Talking Machine Company in 1920.

Young died in Inglewood, California, aged 78 after a brief illness.

She was buried next to her late sister, Eleanore (widow of composer Richard Whiting and mother of singer Margaret Whiting) and is interred at the Holy Cross Cemetery in Los Angeles.