[citation needed] Her professional career began in 1897 as a stock actress with Augustin Daly's company, performing Shakespeare’s The Tempest in Philadelphia and later Boston.

[citation needed] Hawley had better luck as Ruth in the successful run of The Burgomaster, a musical comedy written by Gustav Luders and composed by Frank Pixley.

[8] Later in 1903 Hawley began working as an understudy for opera singer Fritzi Scheff on her national tour with the comic operettas Babette, by Victor Herbert and Harry B. Smith and Two Roses, based on Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer.

[10] In August 1905, Hawley played Polly Premier at the Broadway Theatre in The Pearl and the Pumpkin, written by Paul West and composer John W.

[11] In 1906 she toured in an off-Broadway production of The Blue Moon by Howard Talbot and Paul Rubens and the following year she played the lead role in Gustav Kerker and George Broadhurst's The Lady from Lane's, a musical comedy that ran for 47 performances at the Casino Theatre.