She was the first woman in the country to be elected to a full Senate term without having a close family member who previously served in major public office.

[1][2] Hawkins was the eldest of three children born to Paul and Leone Fickes in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The couple had three children before moving in 1955 to Winter Park, Florida, where Paula became a community activist and Republican volunteer.

She subsequently authored, Children at Risk, My Fight Against Child Abuse: A Personal Story and a Public Plea, which was published in 1986.

During the hearings, Hawkins had a notable altercation with testifying musician Frank Zappa, who eventually invited the senator to his home to see first-hand "what kind of toys" his children are playing with.

She was most infamous during her first year in office for hosting a luncheon in an ornate Senate dining room of New York sirloin steak, tossed salad, baked potatoes, fresh asparagus, hot apple pie, and fresh strawberries and other citrus in which she railed against the "truly greedy" and proposed mandatory jail time for food stamp cheaters.

[10] In a freak accident, a television studio partition toppled and struck her in early January 1982 during an interview at WESH-TV in Winter Park, Florida.

Senator Strom Thurmond, in his capacity as President pro tempore, gave her the use of a room in the Capitol building for a hospital bed where she found pain relief under weighted traction during breaks between congressional activities.

She stayed active, appearing on October 1, 2009, at the opening ceremony of the Waldorf Astoria Orlando at Walt Disney World.