Background
She was born Hazel Gilman on February 21, 1904 in Bisbee, Cochise County, Arizona. Her parents were Merton R. Gilman, a copper miner, and Cora Shinkle. Hazel was the eldest of three children, the others being her brothers, John (called "Hoogie") and Francis. At thirteen, she and a friend attended an I.W.W. (Industrial Workers of the World, known as the "Wobblies") meeting as a lark. A few days later, in July 1917, she was a witness to the Bisbee Deportation, a large-scale labor uprising by copper miners, in which vigilantes, supported by the mine owners, forced 1200 striking miners at gun-point into railroad cattle cars, transported them to New Mexico, then dumped them out into the desert.
In the 1990's Hazel left recordings of oral interviews in which she said that she was a ward of the juvenile court, managed to become a psychiatric nurse in Bisbee, then went to California specifically to work for Disney during the 1941 strike.
Actually, Hazel moved to California somewhat earlier. In 1928, she married a Mr. George (first name unknown) from Missouri, with whom she had a daughter in Los Angeles a year later. Her husband seems to have left the family soon after, for in 1930 she and her child were living with her divorced mother and younger brother Francis. Supported by her mother, a hotel servant, and brother, who worked as a clerk, she eventually graduated from a nursing college, and was later hired by the Disney Studio.
She become not only the Disney Studio nurse, but also acted as Walt Disney's personal nurse. The genesis of this was the aggravating neck injury that Walt suffered while playing polo in 1938. Most afternoons around five she used to visit the sideroom off his office suite to treat this injury and his chronic sinus trouble. Walt called the room his "Laughing Place", and would sip a scotch while unburdening himself of the day's frustrations. She was circumspect in later years about what he told her in these sessions, but did contribute several anecdotes to the Disney biography written by Bob Thomas. She also said Walt was quite introspective and vocal, and expressed serious doubts about himself. Since he could no longer play polo, she suggested he take up another hobby to work off his stress, which led to his interest in railroading.
In 1952, Walt first proposed his "Mickey Mouse Park", to be built in Burbank near the studio, to his brother Roy Disney, and was only allotted $10,000 of company money for preliminary planning. Walt mentioned this to Hazel, then casually asked if she would be willing to contribute money to it. She consented (how many people would refuse their boss a loan?), and Walt then asked her to solicit funds from other studio employees. When Roy Disney heard that employees believed enough in the idea to lend their own money, he decided to support the project himself.