[4] In 1937, Hughes starred in the first serial of the Dick Tracy series with Ralph Byrd and Smiley Burnette.

That year she broke her contract with Republic after only six months and began making films at Universal Studios as Catherine Hughes, which she thought sounded more sophisticated;[5] however, she ended up doing the same type of work, starring in another serial Radio Patrol (1937) and the film Trouble at Midnight (1938).

After a break of two years, she signed a contract with Columbia Pictures and appeared in the Western film Riders of the Badlands (1941).

[6] After taking off a few years, she made a brief comeback in 1945 appearing with Tex Ritter in Enemy of the Law under the name Ruby Martin.

Her final screen appearance was in the 1945 Buster Crabbe Western Fighting Bill Carson, after which she decided to retire from films and raise her family.

[7] Hughes married her third husband in 1964 and they traveled together throughout the United States, eventually moving to Reno, Nevada.