Baxter was born in Michigan City, Indiana, to Catherine Dorothy (née Wright; 1894–1979)[2]—whose father was the famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright—and Kenneth Stuart Baxter (1893–1977), a prominent executive with the Seagrams Distillery Company. When Baxter was five, she appeared in a school play and, as her family had moved to New York when she was six years old, Baxter continued to act. She was raised in Westchester County, NY [3] and attended Brearley.[4] At age 10, Baxter attended a Broadway play starring Helen Hayes, and was so impressed that she declared to her family that she wanted to become an actress.