Erskine was born in Rochester, New York on April 24, 1926, and was in show business from early childhood.
Their home in Brentwood, California was featured in an article in the Fall 1958 issue of Architectural Digest.
[2] Erskine started her performing career at the age of three years, appearing on a local radio show in Buffalo, New York.
[4]: 289 Erskine performed the role of Jane Baxter in Orson Welles's Mercury Theatre on the Air adaptation of Seventeen (October 16, 1938).
[4] As a teenager, she appeared in at least nine Broadway productions in New York City: As an adult, she appeared in at least one Broadway production in New York City and several Off-Broadway plays: Erskine appeared in several Hollywood movies in the early 1950s: She played herself in an MGM documentary Challenge the Wilderness (1951), on the production problems faced while filming Westward the Women.