Howard Hughes

One of the most famous Americans of the past century was also one of the most mysterious. Howard Hughes built business empires in Texas, California, and Nevada, along the way accumulating one of the world's great personal fortunes. When he died, however, he was a mentally disturbed recluse more renowned for eccentricity than any of his impressive accomplishments.

Debates about his birth typify the confusion and opacity that surrounded his entire life. Howard Robard Hughes, Jr., was born in either in Houston or in Humble, either on September 24 or December 24-the only thing anyone seems to agree on is that the year was 1905. His father was a classic Texas wildcatter, Howard Hughes, and his mother a Dallas heiress, Allene Gano. While he was young, his father developed a drill bit that made the family rich, and Howard, Jr., never lacked for money the remainder of his life.

While still attending school in Houston, Hughes secretly began taking flying lessons, discovering a passion that would nearly kill him repeatedly over the years. After both of his parents died early in the 1920s, Howard assumed control of the family company, Hughes Tool Company, and began amassing his personal fortune. He was an aviation pioneer-"the next Lindbergh," according to some-who held several air speed records during the 1930s as well as the founder of Hughes Aircraft Company, an important contributor to the American effort during World War II.

Soon after his parents deaths, Hughes became enamored of the movie industry as well. He produced and financed dozens of films during the 1920s and 1930s and squired many of the most famous starlets of the day, including Lana Turner, Ava Gardner, and Katharine Hepburn. Perhaps most notorious was his film The Outlaw, starring a young actress Hughes discovered named Jane Russell. To the millionaire's delight, Hollywood censors managed to have the film banned in several regions due to Ms. Russell's lack of clothing onscreen.

By the mid-1940s, Howard Hughes' mental health was deteriorating. He suffered a breakdown in 1945 which, combined with an addiction to painkillers brought on after several harrowing airplane crashes, made him decidedly unstable. He developed a germ phobia and became paranoid. By the 1950s, although his aeronautical companies were making record profits, Hughes increasingly withdrew to a favorite hideaway-Las Vegas.

During the 1960s he bought much of the town, including the Desert Inn, the Sands, Castaways, the New Frontier, and the Silver Slipper, all in addition to owning the only airport in the city and thousands of acres of surrounding land. He lived on the ninth floor of the Desert Inn, a virtual hermit, visible only to bodyguards and physicians. And although when traveling he tried to disguise himself, he could never lose his Texas accent.

In 1970 Hughes moved to the Bahamas, then to Mexico, hiding from constant media scrutiny-he was, since selling his majority interest in TWA in 1966, the richest man in the world-and suffering continued bad health. On April 5, 1976, Hughes died aboard an airplane bound for Houston, a tragic shell of a once-brilliant man. He was buried in Glenwood Cemetery there.

To get to Glenwood Cemetery, 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 Howard Hughes, see Richard Hack, Hughes: The Private Diaries, Memos and Letters: The Definitive Biography of the First American Billionaire (2002). 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/.