Hildegarde was born and raised in Franklin, Pennsylvania, the oldest of four children born to Clifford and Katherine Dolson. From 1926 to 1929 she attended Allegheny College, in Meadville, Pennsylvania, but left at the beginning of her senior year to live in New York City. She would later joke "The day I arrived in New York, in October 1929, the stock market crashed with a bang.

After holding down numerous jobs Miss Dolson found work as an advertising copywriter for Gimbels, Macy's, Franklin-Simon, and Bamberger stores. She sold her first manuscript to The New Yorker, and was later published in other major magazines, including Harper's, Ladies Home Journal, McCall's, and Reader's Digest. After her first book was published in 1938, Miss Dolson became a full-time freelance writer.

Miss Dolson once wrote "I'm a self-made spinster who crows too much about it, especially when I get paid by the word." She had at least one article published on the subject of why she should never marry.

In 1965, when she was 56, she met mystery writer Richard Lockridge, and Lockridge quickly decided he wanted to marry her. Miss Dolson loved her Greenwich Village apartment, and Mr. Lockridge lived in the country. He had two beloved Siamese cats, and she preferred dogs.

Despite the obstacles, within a few months of their first meeting Mr. Lockridge and Miss Dolson married in May 1965. Lockridge would refer to Hilegarde as either Hildy, or The Lady.

Hildegarde Dolson Lockridge died on January 15, 1981 at St. Luke's Hospital in Columbus, North Carolina. She was 72 years old, and had been living in Tyron, North Carolina.