Hazel Mae Bowden was born on February 22, 1922. She married Hershell Wade on November 30, 1939, and had one son, James Hedges. The couple divorced and in 1950 she married Charles William Hedges. She moved from Kansas City to Las Vegas with her husband and son in 1952. She worked briefly as a waitress in the dining room at the Thunderbird and then became a stay at home mother until her son was in junior high school. Then after she went to real estate school, she went to work in commercial real estate at Bond Realty.