[1][2] She first worked in show business singing on NBC radio with Glenn Miller, Harry James, and Claude Thornhill.

[1][2] Stewart made her film debut in Doll Face (1945), in which she acted alongside Vivian Blaine and sang a duet with Perry Como.

[1] She then featured in Johnny Comes Flying Home (1946) opposite Richard Crane, then in I Wonder Who's Kissing Her Now (1947) with June Haver.

[1][2] Stewart performed one of her best-known roles as murder victim Mildred Atkinson in the classic In a Lonely Place (1950).

[1] Stewart was the subject of an erroneous obituary in 2012, published by the website of Variety magazine,[9] when she was actually still living in California under the name Martha Shelley.