[1] Stirling was born in Summer Hill, New South Wales to New Zealand-born father Henry James Mamgron, a sharebroker's clerk who was of Danish-German descent and Mary Rose Lawrie.
In 1932 she started working in radio for George Edwards as his assistant, in his production "The Ghost Train" and eventually became his business and romantic partner.
[2] The duo began working on radio at 2UE and were very successful, forming their own company, "The George Edwards Players".
[3] Their scriptwriters included Lynne Foster, Lorna Bingham, Sumner Locke Elliott, Maurice Francis and Anthony Scott Veitch.
Stirling divorced Edwards in 1948, and later that year married Alexander Atwill, her accountant.