In November 1937, Rawls' parents announced her engagement to an advertising executive named William Starr. On May 18, 1938, unbeknown to her mother, Rawls married Theodore H. Thompson, an airplane pilot. She began working at the Thompson School of Aviation in Fort Lauderdale. She had qualified as a pilot while still swimming. While continuing to swim at exhibitions, she did not compete at the 1939 Nationals, and retired from swimming when the 1940 Olympics ware cancelled owing to the outbreak of World War II. She was one of the initial 28 pilots who formed the Women's Auxiliary Ferrying Squadron in 1942, stationed at Detroit, transporting military cargo by air as part of the U.S. war effort. In 1943, her husband reportedly sued her for divorce, but dropped the charges as caused by a "misunderstanding" and anticipated her return from Detroit to his farm in Florida. Rawls was a swimming instructor for 20 years at the Greenbrier Hotel in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.