Dixie Virginia Carter was born and raised in McLemoresville, Tennessee. Upon her graduation from Southwestern University in Memphis, Miss Carter made her New York debut as Perdita in A Winter's Tale with the New York Shakespeare Festival. Other theatrical credits include Kiss Me Kate, Carousel, Oklahoma!, Brigadoon, A Little Night Music, Mame, Pal Joey, The Student Prince, The New Moon, Babes in Arms, John Ford Noonan's two-character play A Coupla White Chicks Sitting Around Talking, and The King and I at the Front Street Theater in New York. She created the roles of Dixie Avalon in Taken in Marriage and Liz Conlon in Buried Inside Extra in New York and at the Royal Court Theater in London. She also appeared in productions with Music Theater of Lincoln Center and in revues at Upstairs at the Downstairs. In 1993, she performed the role of Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire in Memphis.

Her performance as Calamity Jane in Fathers and Sons won her a Drama Desk nomination. She won a Theatre World Award for her portrayal of Belle Starr in Jesse and the Bandit Queen, co-starred on Broadway in the 1974 musical Sextet, and starred as Melba in the 1976 Broadway revival of Pal Joey. Miss Carter also appeared regularly on the TV soap opera The Edge of Night while in New York doing theater.

In the years since Designing Women ended, the woman best known for her role as feisty Julia Sugarbaker has starred on Broadway in Terrence McNally's award-winning Master Class, appeared in two yoga videos, and has recorded two music CDs, Come a Little Closer and Dixie Carter Sings John Wallowitch Live at the Cafe Carlyle. For the past several years, she has appeared each spring in a cabaret act at the Cafe Carlyle in Manhattan.

Dixie Carter has found renewed fame as Orson Hodge's disturbed, alcoholic mother on Desperate Housewives, earning an Emmy nomination for her work on the series. She was awarded an Emmy nomination for her work on the series. Desperate Housewives creator Marc Cherry had gotten his start in Hollywood as Carter's assistant on the set of Designing Women.