Carter was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., on December 5, 1922, and moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, as a child.
[1] During World War II, she studied aircraft building in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
She then got a job with Chance-Vought as a factory riveter, assembling F4U Corsair aircraft, to finance flying lessons.
[1][2] She joined the Women Airforce Service Pilots (WASP) in 1944, training in Texas, and was a member of the last graduating set before the program was discontinued that year.
[1] In 1999, she and her husband gave 2.2 acres of land to the Connecticut branch of the National Audubon Society, a conservation charity, to facilitate access to a Fairfield wildlife sanctuary.