Marilyn Allene Hickey was born on July 1, 1931, in Dalhart, Texas. When she was a young girl, Hickey's parents were professing Methodists and attended church only casually. Her family suffered from hereditary mental disorders according to one of her telecasts. Her father had it, after her grandfather and her great-grandfather that had it, even before the "devil and his imps" got to Marilyn, at the age of 36, she was the only one in her family not to suffer a mental disorder.