Oveta Culp Hobby

Few Texans over the years have given of themselves as selflessly to public service as did Oveta Culp Hobby. A women who lived much of her life in what was most definitely a man's world, she served in literally dozens of capacities at the local, state, and federal levels. Most famously the commanding officer of the Women's Army Corps during World War II, she was also the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in the Eisenhower administration and a successful businesswomen. Her story makes nearly anyone else's seem an exercise in underachievement.

Oveta Culp was born on January 19, 1905, in Killeen, Texas, to Ike W. and Emma Elizabeth Culp. When she was twelve her father was elected to the state legislature, and Oveta spent much time in Austin immersed in the political machinations of the day. A prodigy of sorts, she read voraciously, graduated near the top of her Temple Highs School class, and at age twenty accepted the position of parliamentarian for the Texas House of Representatives.

In 1931 Oveta married former Texas governor William P. Hobby, a family friend and former publisher of the Beaumont Enterprise. He was fifty-three years old, she just twenty-six. Governor Hobby and his new wife soon purchased the Houston Post-Dispatch from then-governor Ross Sterling, and later added Sterling's Houston radio station, KPRC, to their growing media empire. Mrs. Hobby worked as an editor and executive vice president of the newspaper throughout the 1930s, and later took over as president and editor.

In 1941 General David Searles asked Mrs. Hobby to organize a women's section for the army. Reluctant at first but encouraged by her husband, she agreed to head the Women's Interest Section of the War Department Bureau of Public Relations, which became the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps upon the United States entering World War II. Until resigning, exhausted, in 1945, Mrs. Hobby worked tirelessly, often in the face of overt discrimination toward women in the military, and through the sheer force of her will made the program a success.

After the war Mrs. Hobby returned to Houston, her family-which by now included two sons as well as her husband-and her jobs at the newspaper and radio station. At the same time, she served on the boards of dozens of organizations, including the American Red Cross, the American Cancer Society, and the Advertising Federation of America. She was also president of the Southern Newspaper Publishers Association in 1949.

In 1952 Governor and Mrs. Hobby campaigned for Dwight D. Eisenhower, important leaders of the Democrats for Eisenhower movement. In April 1953, after the election, Mrs. Hobby took over the newly created cabinet-level Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which administered the social security program, among many others. After two years she resigned to return to Texas and her husband, who was ill.

For the next several years Mrs. Hobby spent most of her time with her family, but never removed herself completely from public service. She remained active on the boards of educational institutions, including the University of Texas and Rice University, as well as on national commissions like the President's Commission on Civilian National Honors and the National Advisory Commission of Selective Service. During the course of her life, Mrs. Hobby received more than a dozen honorary degrees from colleges and universities in recognition of her accomplishments.

Oveta Culp Hobby died in Houston on August 16, 1995, after an almost mythical life. She was buried at Glenwood Cemetery. To get there, take I-10 west from downtown Houston to Studemont St., then south to Washington Ave. The cemetery is at 2525 Washington.

For more information about Oveta Culp Hobby, see The New Handbook of Texas. To learn more about East Texas history, contact the East Texas Historical Association at Stephen F. Austin State University or visit the ETHA web site at http://leonardo.sfasu.edu/etha/.