 Her mother, who was born in New Jersey, died at the age of thirty-three just a few days past Troutman’s ninth birthday.Troutman attended Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina, where the family had relocated at some point in her youth and, after their return to Long Branch, Chattle High School.Troutman made her professional stage debt at Wallack's Theatre on April 14, 1902, playing a minor rôle in the Leo Ditrichstein drama, "The Last Appeal".