Working behind the scenes as a stage manager for her husband's variety shows, Kathryn Boyd went on the stage after the tragic death of her son, Irvin C. Miller, Jr., who died of diphtheria in November of 1925, aged three, saying that "she must keep busy." She soon joined Lawrence Criner in his acting company and continued acting until she married a Los Angeles doctor, and after his death, a Baptist minister of Cleveland, Ohio.