[6] Burnham played the young daughter of Lana Turner's character in the film Imitation of Life (1959), which was widely popular.
She was the younger of two children born to Guy Calvin Burnham, an aeronautics engineer at Douglas Aircraft Company, and his wife Elizabeth Teresa Buelna Symons, a homemaker.
[12] On December 22, 1955, Burnham made her television debut at age six alongside Brandon deWilde in the series Climax!, in an episode entitled "The Day They Gave the Babies Away".
[3] Also that year, Burnham was set to star in a new child-centered series, Turquoise, Inc., whose writer/producers Dick Chevillat and Ray Singer touted her as "TV's first Shirley Temple".
On August 8, 2018, which would have been her 69th birthday, Burnham's ashes were buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Long Beach.