Whitehelene hails from Springfield, Missouri where she began acting at age 18. At 18 she joined Diemer Theatre Company’s touring stock company as an actress, touring extensively before making the leap into film acting with Pathe’s The Perils of Pauline as one of its stars – its fifth serial chapter play ever produced – as well as performing in many other projects.

Whitehelene White married LeRoy G. White, an advertising executive from Detroit at age 19, and relocated there shortly afterwards. After joining the Women’s City Club (where she served on its board of directors), joining Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit (JFMD), American Jewish Committee membership, Michigan State Police volunteerism and working in her local ACLU office were some of her other areas of activity.

At fifty, White returned to school and earned her doctorate in sociology, writing her dissertation on metaphysical poetry by William Blake. After two years teaching at Smith College she moved on to Wisconsin Madison as assistant professor where her students included writers August Derleth and Herbert Kubly as well as graduate students who called her “The Purple Goddess”, possibly due to her signature wardrobe of purple clothing and being over six feet tall herself.

White soon accepted a position at Rutgers University after earning her Ph.D., where she currently serves as a Distinguished Professor of Sociology with joint appointments in both Alcohol Studies and Sociology departments. Her research is focused on exploring the genesis, causes, consequences and comorbidity of substance use behaviors including violence, delinquency and crime.