Actress. She worked as a radio actress and fashion model before winning the Paramount Studios’ nationwide contest to find the “Panther Woman” for their H.G. Wells’ screen adaptation. Burke was picked from the eventual four finalists which had also included Verna Hillie and Lona Andre. In 1936 her contract with Paramount was terminated. She married dancer Jose Fernandez in March of 1936 and they moved to New York where Burke worked in a radio drama during 1940. She later married Forrest Smith, but little is known about her for the last forty years before her death. She died of respiratory failure due severe asthmatic bronchitis. (bio by: MC)