At the request of John Ford, she stopped in Hollywood while traveling back from a PTA conference in Virginia to play a minor role in the 1937 film The Hurricane.

Beginning around 1963, she volunteered at Bishop Museum, where she worked with Annie Kanahele to translate letters and documents from Hawaiian to English.

[4] The family lived on land Kamehameha III gave Hayes' paternal great-great-grandfather during the Great Māhele.

[5] The wedding took place in Kapālama, after which the couple traveled around Hawaii Island by steamship before settling in Pukoo on Molokai.

[6] They moved to Honolulu in 1918 with their young son, after which Hayes audited numerous classes at the University of Hawaiʻi with encouragement from her husband.

[5] Hayes wrote a letter to the editor of The Honolulu Advertiser defending the traditional dance and calling for Hawaiians to support it, so it would not be lost.

[11] While president of the PTA, she visited every public school in Hawaii and initiated new chapters of the organization, and frequently testified at hearings in the Territorial Legislature.

[9] Director John Ford wanted her to play a major role in the 1937 movie The Hurricane, but she was on her way to attend a national PTA convention in Richmond, Virginia.

[9] Later, however, on her way back to Hawaii she stopped in Hollywood for five weeks and played a minor part in the film as Mama Rua.

[3] Hayes was urged to run for a seat in the Hawaii Territorial Legislature because of her political activity as PTA president.

[23][24] Hayes retired from her position on the Hawaiian Homes Commission in 1958[22] and was elected to her seventh term in the Territorial House, representing Pauoa.

[29] There she ensured a section reserving certain areas of land for Native Hawaiians was included in the drafted state constitution.

[30] While in the legislature, Hayes focused on legislation related to schools, parks, and playgrounds and welfare and the budget, giving some people the mistaken impression that she was a teacher.

[3] The Honolulu Advertiser reported that her proudest political achievement was the passage of legislation that established kindergartens in Hawaii's public schools.

[31] She also supported the establishment of a standardized salary system under which public school teachers were paid based on professional experience rather than the grade level they taught, as well as backing a bill that issued a bond of $1,500,000 to pay for land and buildings for public schools over the next 20 years.