Hicks was born as Mertie L. Brown in Muscadine, Alabama as the second child of Obediah and Nancy Brown. She had at least three siblings – Homer, Milton, and Maude. She also had two older half-siblings – William and Nancy – from her father’s previous marriage.

Hicks was married at 14, on 20 January 1897, to Sam Hornsby. Her age was inflated to 18 in her marriage record. The couple divorced in 1901 without having any children. On 27 June 1929, she remarried to Mose Hicks, a man 23 years her senior, and was living in Tallapoosa, Georgia at the time. They also had no children.

Hicks died in Montgomery, Alabama on 19 October 1992, six days after her 110th birthday. She was survived by several nieces and nephews.