A comedic mainstay on several sitcoms of the 1970s, she is best remembered for making a career out of playing wisecracking maids, neighbors, friends, nurses, and church ladies. The daughter of a Presbyterian minister, her childhood was spent on the Bible Belt where she appeared singing and acting in several religious themed productions. During World War II, she worked as a typist and secretary in a steel factory while appearing in amateur theatre by nights and weekends. In the late 1950s, she moved to California and worked as a TV commercial and magazine model appearing in several advertisements for well known brand names.

In the early 1970s, she finally got her big break and made her film debut in an episode of The Bill Cosby Show. Quickly she became a regular supporting player on several well known TV shows of the 1970s and 1980s while squeezing in an occasional film appearance or two. In 1987, she passed away from undisclosed causes and two films she was making at the time, Moving and Wildfire, were released posthumously. She was 62 years old.