Durelle Alexander was a talented child performer, and appeared in "Hollywood Junior Follies" and several silent "Our Gang" comedies throughout the 1920s.
She would later have a singing career appearing as a featured performer with Paul Whiteman on NBC's radio shows "Kraft Music Hall" and "Paul Whiteman's Musical Varieties".
She would later tour with the prominent big bands of Paul Whiteman, Eddy Duchin, Smith Ballew, and Archie Bleyer. While appearing with Whiteman in "Billy Rose's Casa Manana", a centennial celebration of Ft. Worth, Texas, she met Edmund Van Zandt, grandson of the city's founders, whom she would soon marry.