Oveta Culp Hobby
Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995) was an American government official and businesswoman who served as the first United States Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare from 1953 to 1955. A member of the Republican Party, Hobby was the second woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet.
Oveta Culp Hobby
Herself (Federal Security Agency Administrator)
Dwight D. Eisenhower
Herself (Health, Education and Welfare Secretary)
August 16, 1995 (aged 90)
Houston, Texas, U.S.
Republican (after 1953)
Democratic (before 1953)
2, including William Jr.
1941–1945
Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women's Army Corps)
She also served as the first director of the Women's Army Corps from 1942 to 1945, and was sequentially editor, publisher and chair of the board of the Houston Post. She entered public service when President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her administrator of the Federal Security Agency, soon after reorganized as a federal executive department, known then as Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and Hobby became its first head.
Early life[edit]
Culp was born on January 19, 1905, in Killeen, Texas, to Texas lawyer and legislator Isaac William Culp and Emma Elizabeth Hoover. She briefly attended Mary Hardin Baylor College for Women, and attended law classes at South Texas College of Law and Commerce, but did not graduate from either school. She went on to study law at the University of Texas Law School,[1] but she did not formally enroll and therefore never received a degree.[2] Starting at age 21, she served for several years as parliamentarian of the Texas House of Representatives and was an unsuccessful candidate for the legislature in 1930,[3] before beginning a journalism career in 1931, at age 26.
Personal life and family[edit]
In 1931, she married William P. Hobby, an editor and future owner of the Houston Post, who served as the 27th governor of Texas from 1917 to 1921. They had two children together. She took a position on the editorial staff at the Post.[5] In ensuing years she became the newspaper's executive vice president, then its president, ultimately becoming its publisher and co-owner with her husband. In 1938, upon becoming vice president of the newspaper, she gave greater prominence to women's news.[1]
Hobby and her husband were both Southern Democrats, but soon became dissatisfied with the party throughout the 1930s. They believed Franklin D. Roosevelt's social programs overextended their original intent. After World War II, Hobby tried to sway Democratic voters to swing Republican for presidential nominees by establishing many statewide organizations.[5]
She died of a stroke in 1995, in Houston, and was buried at Glenwood Cemetery.
Her son William P. Hobby, Jr., served as the 37th lieutenant governor of Texas from 1973 to 1991, the longest serving in that position. Her daughter Jessica was married to Henry E. Catto, Jr., the former United States Ambassador to Great Britain and was an activist for environmental causes and for the Democratic Party. Hobby's grandson Paul Hobby narrowly lost the election for comptroller of Texas to Carole Strayhorn in the 1998 general election.
This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Army Center of Military History.