Dorothy Page was born March 4, 1904, in Northampton, Pennsylvania. As a college student in Pennsylvania she was picked by the Curtis Publishing Co.

to be a cover model for the "Saturday Evening Post". She married a medical student in 1925, and after he became a doctor they moved to Detroit, his hometown, to start his medical practice. The Depression hit the US in the 1930s, and many families needed extra income to survive, so Dorothy--who had majored in music in college--auditioned for a singing spot in the Paul Whiteman band.