Dixie is the middle of three children. Her father owned several small retail stores. Early on, she dreamed of being an opera singer, but a botched tonsillectomy at age 7 spoiled any chances for that dream. Still, she sang regularly and studied classical music. She can play the piano, trumpet, and the harmonica. She graduated from Memphis State with an English degree. In 1960, she made her professinal debut in a local production of "Carousel". Three year's later, she moved to New York and landed a role in Joseph Papp's production of Shakespeare's "A Winter's Tale". When she married businessman, Arthur Carter, she left the stage for eight years to raise two daughters, Ginna Carter - now an actress and Mary Dixie Carter, a screenwriter. At age 35, she returned to acting, but found that no agent wanted to give her a chance. When offered a role in "On Our Own" in L.A., she immediately uprooted her family to move there. A second marriage to Broadway actor, George Hearn, quickly ended. She me!
Attended Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College). Carter is her birth name, and her first husband was no relation. Dixie Carter's daughters, Mary Dixie Carter and Ginna Carter, played her nieces in one episode of Designing Women. She has admitted to having plastic surgery at least twice.