Bayh was born in the Garfield County, Oklahoma, town of Lahoma, and was the daughter of Bernett E. (née Monson) and Delbert Murphy Hern.

[citation needed] Former senator Bill Bradley described her as "a valuable and active half of the Bayh political team.

Despite recurring back problems and double vision, Bayh remained deeply involved in the Washington political and social scene.

In 1967, President Johnson recognized her abilities and asked her to become the vice-chairman of the Democratic National Committee—a job she turned down with great reluctance at the request of her husband's staff when he was launching his own Senate re-election campaign.

Bayh later described his failure to intervene and support her wish to take the job as "totally selfish and insensitive" and said, "That was the worst mistake I ever made.

Despite aggressive treatment, she died on April 24, 1979, at the age of forty-six, at the National Institutes of Health[4] in Bethesda, Maryland.