On September 25, 1967, Locke married sculptor Gordon Leigh Anderson (born August 2, 1944, Batesville, Arkansas) at the First Presbyterian Church in Nashville, one week after "The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter" commenced principal photography. She had known Anderson since 1956, when they met in seventh grade at Shelbyville Mills School. In early 1969, as Locke was flooded with script offers after her Oscar nomination, she and Anderson left Tennessee and moved into a condo at The Andalusia in West Hollywood.