Canerday is a native of Russellville, Arkansas. After earning a Bachelor of the Arts degree in Theatre in 1985 from Hendrix College[2] (where she performed in plays with Herman's Head star William Ragsdale), she began her motion picture career as a production secretary for the television feature The Tuskegee Airmen, then made minor appearances in films such as Biloxi Blues and Walk the Line. Her most famous roles have been as protagonists' harried mothers in Sling Blade and October Sky. In 1996, she and others in Billy Bob Thornton's Sling Blade cast were collectively nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Cast in a Motion Picture.　　Canerday served as a judge for the 2006 George Lindsey/UNA Film Festival,[3] and in 2007 was cast in a national radio commercial.[4] In October 2009 she worked in the Oak Ridge Secret City Film Festival[5] which was known as the 7 day shoot-out because the contestants had only 7 days to make a 2–7 minute short-film. She played the part of a bartender in the short film Third Rate Romance directed by Chase Hartsook.