Born Alice Fanny Fallwell on 14 September 1877, Whyte was the daughter of Samuel Fallwell, a dispensing chemist, and Martha Ann Fallwell (née Wilkinson). The family lived in Papakura, South Auckland. Whyte studied art at the Elam School of Fine Arts, traveling by train from Papakura every day. She was a teacher at Elam from 1905 until 1908, when she married Norman Alexander Whyte on 17 March of that year.

From 1929, she studied at Elam again, and became well known as a watercolour artist. In 1928 she exhibited at the Society of Women Painters in Sydney. In July 1930, Whyte was the first member of the Auckland Society of Arts to hold a solo exhibition in Auckland. In 1936, one of her paintings was awarded the Judkins ...