By the time she was 11 years old, she and friend Ardis Olson had formed the Bluebird Twins singing duo, performing on radio station WHO and in local venues.

[9] She also sang with Ted Fio Rito, Ben Bernie,[2] Jimmy Grier,[10] Ozzie Nelson, and Abe Lyman and their orchestras, among others.

During World War II, Hodges sang with Harry James and his orchestra as they entertained military personnel on USO tours in Europe.

[9] On old-time radio, Hodges was the female singer on The Joe Penner Show on CBS beginning in October 1936.

[15] Hodges and Ronald Reagan had a friendship that lasted six decades, beginning when both of them worked at radio station WHO in Des Moines, Iowa, where she sang and he was an announcer and sportscaster.

[18] Hodges married Gilbert H. Doorly, a newspaper editor, in Des Moines, Iowa, on September 2, 1939.

[20] On April 24, 1942, she married Paul Dudley Helmund, a radio producer and writer, and that marriage ended in divorce in 1952.