Her father was Arthur Garfield Hays, founder of the American Civil Liberties Union.
Hays began her career with training in the theater, making her debut in Little Accident (1929) and going on to appear in films in Paris.
She also served as assistant producer on "Used Cars", the 1939 item in the "Getting Your Money's Worth" series of consumer education films.
[3] She is credited with editing two short spinoff films under Ivens’ long-distance supervision in 1941 after he had moved on to his next project, Bip Goes to Town and Worst of Farm Disasters.
[4] In 1962, she shared with colleagues an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Film Editing in television for the CBS Shos "20th Century."