The miners, members of the United Mine Workers, sent a telegram to President Harry S. Truman asking for help, and a federal judge, Guy K. Bard, was assigned to investigate Shawmut’s finances. During a hearing, Hayes and the miners testified to the horrific sanitary conditions, Biederman wrote, with Hayes’ testimony clearly moving the judge. She said she gave birth to a baby after falling into a ditch and the sewage splashing on her clothes. Public health professionals had urged women to give birth in hospitals, “using everything science has taught us about baby care,” Hayes said, but, she added, “we need to mix our formula with sewage and diluted urine”.

Judge Bard appointed two new executives to run Shawmut, ousting Dickson and his top aide. The new leaders rehired Hayes and agreed to fix the sewer problems and pave the roads. Declaring victory, the miners ended their five-month strike.

Hayes became so famous that Woody Guthrie wrote a song, “The Dying Doctor”, about her and her father. The lyrics say, in part, “My father told me to fight to cure the disease / But I can’t cure the disease with sewage all around.”

Hayes decided to quit his job in 1947, and the miners and their families held a big farewell picnic. She married Charles Williamson and worked as a civilian doctor at Cherry Point Marine Air Force Base in North Carolina. While her husband was serving in Korea, she moved to Brockway, Pennsylvania, and helped run a medical practice there. After her marriage to Williamson ended in divorce, she married LeRoy Voris, an agricultural researcher, in 1957. They lived in Washington and eventually retired to Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina.

Hayes died of a stroke on June 26, 1984, in New Bern, North Carolina. She was 72 years old.

During the 1945 strike, when “Dr. Betty” was a national sensation, wrote The Philadelphia Record, “Dr. Hayes’ Prescription – “Get Good and Mad – and Start Fighting” – reminds us that many, many more Americans need to follow his example.