Dixie Carter

In 1996, Carter published her memoirs, entitled Trying to Get to Heaven. In 2004, she became the first African-American actress to win the "Best Leading Actress" Award at the Tony Awards, winning for her role in the play, A Raisin in the Sun. They live in Beverly Hills, California. Her sister is actress and dancer Debbie Allen. Two years later, she divorced Hearn and married again to actor Hal Holbrook, who is most noted for his appearances as Mark Twain. She was previously married to television sportscaster Ahmad Rashad from 1985 to 2001. She divorced Arthur Carter in 1977 and married actor Gene Hearn. She is a graduate of Howard University and later taught drama there.

She is known for her Southern pride, which is evident in her product endorsements, like her appearance in commercials for Southern Bell (later BellSouth). With her big break on the ABC soap opera, One Life to Live, she is most famous for her role as Bill Cosby's wife and the Huxtable family matriarch on the television show, The Cosby Show. She also starred in several musicals and plays on Broadway. Phylicia Rashad (born Phylicia Ayers-Allen on June 19, 1948 in Houston, Texas) is an African-American activist and actress. From 1999 to 2002, she portrayed brash Southern attorney Randi King on the series Family Law. However, she is best known for appearing as outspoken Julia Sugarbaker in the 1980s television program Designing Women, set in Atlanta.

Carter first became famous for her role as Brandy Henderson on the soap opera The Edge of Night. She returned to acting at age 35. In 1967 she married businessman Arthur Carter, with whom she had two daughters. Following the birth of her daughters, she left acting for eight years to focus on raising her children. She moved to New York in 1963 and got a part in a production of A Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare.

In 1960, Carter made her professional stage debut in a Memphis production of Carousel. She is a graduate of Memphis State (now University of Memphis) with a degree in English. She attended college at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College). Carter was born in McLemoresville, Tennessee and spent many of her early years in Memphis, Tennessee.

Dixie Virginia Carter (born May 25, 1939) is an American actress noted for her portrayal of Southern women.