Baxley appeared in supporting roles in many television series of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. She played a wife having her rodeo-performing husband, played by Lee Van Cleef, murdered in the CBS crime drama series, Richard Diamond, Private Detective, starring David Janssen. She appeared in a 1958 Perry Mason episode, "The Case of the Gilded Lily", as Enid Griffin and she also played the role of Cora in the original Twilight Zone episode of "Mute".

In 1961, she was nominated for a Tony Award for Best Actress (Dramatic) for her performance in the Broadway production of Tennessee Williams' comedy, Period of Adjustment. She appeared in Chekhov's The Three Sisters and Neil Simon's Plaza Suite, as well as the 1960s Broadway musical She Loves Me, which co-starred Jack Cassidy, Barbara Cook and Daniel Massey. She also starred in the 1976 Broadway play Best Friend.

She is perhaps best known for the role of Lady Pearl, the feisty wife of country music icon "Haven Hamilton" in Robert Altman's film Nashville (1975), and as the mother of Sally Field's character in Norma Rae (1979).

Baxley played two different characters in two episodes of Have Gun – Will Travel, starring Richard Boone. She also played roles on two daytime soap operas, Where the Heart Is and Another World.