Kemble Stout was born in 1916 to a music store owner in Kirksville, MO. In 1936, Stout earned a degree in education from Northeast Missouri State Teachers College, now Truman State University. Stout was awarded a scholarship to the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and received a Master of Music degree in 1938. Later he taught four years at his alma mater in Kirksville, and graduate study at the University of Iowa, and taught elementary school music part-time while working at the Kansas City, Missouri, Pratt and Whitney factory in 1944-45.

Stout and his family moved to Pullman in 1945, and he began a 34 year career with the Washington State University (WSU) Music department as a faculty member. He returned to Rochester for the 1949-50 school year and received his Ph.D. in 1951. He was elected department chair at WSU that same year and served in that capacity for 16 years (1951-67). Following a mild heart attack, he took early retirement in 1979. The next year, the listening library in Kimbrough Hall was dedicated in his name.

In 1958 he purchased a Steinway reproducing piano and restored it. He also collected piano rolls recorded by early 20th century pianists. His collection numbered 2,500. He wrote scripts and recorded half-hour radio shows for a series titled The Legendary Pianists. The 242 programs, distributed for broadcast use by WSU's Radio Tape Network, aired weekly over KWSU and more than 200 educational and commercial stations nationally during the 1960s and 1970s.

Fascinated by genealogy, Stout researched and published four books documenting his grandparents’ ancestors and descendants. Thirteen years later, he published a larger, more extensive volume, Genealogy of The Kemble (Kimble) Family in America.