Hitchcock was born in Haverhill, Massachusetts and grew up on a chicken farm in Miami, Florida.

[1][2] She attended Miami Palmetto High School, Miami-Dade Junior College and studied art at the University of Alabama.

[3][4] A junior at the university when she won the Miss USA title, Hitchcock chose not to complete her degree.

Hitchcock married William Carson, the inventor of a fruit harvesting machine, in 1970.

[4] In 1972 she was one of a panel of twelve judges for the Miss Universe 1972 pageant won by Kerry Anne Wells.