Kandi Barbour was long believed to have been born Linda Jean Smith in either 1952 or 1956 in Shawnee Mission, Kansas, in part because of an online essay in the early days of the internet that was written in the first person and appeared to be factual but was mere fantasy. After her death, trying to find next-of-kin, it was revealed that she was born Kandie Lou Dotson in Russellville, Alabama in 1959. This revelation brought into question the legality of her earlier works, as Barbour would have began doing pornographic films at the age of 15 - after years of doing nude modeling. The adult industry, as a whole, is disputing the claim of her name and date of birth, and continues to sell her films and pictures. Some distributors have been selling titles stating that they were filmed after 1977, with some biography sites stating that she only became active after 1977 when she would have turned 18, even though they still have her listed with the debunked date of birth.

Barbour was the star of such notable adult films as Screwples (Caballero Home Video, 1979), The Budding of Brie (VCA, 1980), Chuck Vincent's Bon Appetit (Video-X-Pix, 1980), Richard Mahler's Pink Ladies (VCA, 1980), and Warren Evans' Pandora's Mirror (Caballero, 1981). Barbour was the poster girl for the Cecil Howard film, Neon Nights,, which AVN named as one of the greatest adult videos of all time. Barbour gave her final adult film performance in 1987 in X-Effect, in which Ron Jeremy directed her.

In 2009, she was inducted into the Pioneers branch of the X-Rated Critics Organization (XRCO) Hall of Fame.

Barbour died in January 2012 in San Francisco at age 52, and she was reportedly homeless at the time. The cause of her death was not released to the public.

As of January 1, 2017, there has been no official announcement that any of her work is now considered child pornography.