Carolyn Dickson graduated from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, after having also attended Mount Holyoke College in Mass. and Oklahoma University. After completing nursing school at St. Joseph Hospital and practicing general nursing and oncology, she received a Master's degree, becoming a Clinical Specialist in Oncology Nursing. Then she and her husband quit their jobs and headed for Nicaragua and subsequently the Dominican Republic. They returned to the USA via Brooklyn, N.Y., where Carolyn returned to oncology nursing.

After ten years they came back to Texas; Carolyn worked as a home hospice nurse until retirement in 1996.