 Born: 1905 (Killeen) Died: 1995 (Houston) Noted For: Oveta Culp Hobby was a civil servant, journalist, and politician noted as the director of the Women’s Army Corps; as the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare; and as an early president of the Texas League of Women Voters. The road to the Texas House of Representatives… Although Oveta Culp Hobby wasn’t quite old enough to vote when the 19th Amendment was ratified, she was likely already considering how she was going to wield her voting power—and marshal the voting power of others—long before she cast her first ballot. Oveta’s mother set an early example of community service, while her father, an attorney who served in the Texas legislature, encouraged a keen interest in politics. In 1925, following two years’ study at Baylor Female College (today the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor), Oveta went to work as a legislative parliamentarian for the Texas House of Representatives, a position she held until 1933. During this era, she joined the ranks of other Texas women who were leveraging their still-new voting enfranchisement to find their place in politics, serving on the U.S. Senate campaign for Tom Connally and helping to organize the 1928 National Democratic Convention in Houston. In 1929, she ran for a seat in the Texas House, but was defeated by a Klan-backed candidate. This experience triggered a shift in Oveta’s career trajectory, and she eventually took a job in the circulation department of the Houston Post, later acquired by the Houston Chronicle. It was around this time that Oveta became reacquainted with family friend William P. Hobby, the newspaper’s president and the former governor of Texas (who had also signed the first law allowing Texas women to vote.) The pair married in 1931, the same year that Oveta became president of the Texas League of Women Voters. Oveta would go on to fill a number of roles at the Post, including bylining a nationally syndicated Sunday column about parliamentary procedure. The Hobbys eventually purchased both the newspaper and a Houston radio station and TV station, KRPC. Oveta later became the top executive of all three media companies. Wartime and post-war leadership… In 1941, as the U.S. readied for potential entry into the world war, Oveta was tapped to head the Women’s Interest Section in the War Department Bureau of Public Relations, where she was charged with identifying ways that women could serve the U.S. war effort. After the creation of the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corps (WAAC), Oveta was named its first director, and when the WAAC was eventually integrated into the U.S. Army she entered with the rank of colonel. The members of the WAAC were the first women (other than nurses) to wear army uniforms and receive army benefits. During her tenure, Oveta lobbied for equal treatment, training and job assignments for the women under her command. In 1945, the army awarded Oveta the Distinguished Service Medal, marking the first time the honor was conferred upon a woman. After returning to the Post at the war’s end, Oveta remained active in politics, and in 1953 she was appointed by President Dwight Eisenhower to serve as the secretary of the newly-created Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, where she oversaw the distribution of the first polio vaccine in the U.S. She continued her activities in publishing and public service for many years following, including another presidential appointment (this time from Lyndon B. Johnson) on the National Advisory Commission on Selective Service, as well as a stint on the board of directors at Rice University. Throughout her career, Oveta was noted for her stamina and work ethic, her ability to remain calm in a crisis, and her advocacy for equal treatment for all. She was singled out for many awards and honors during her lifetime and afterwards, including induction into the Texas Women’s Hall of Fame and the National Women’s Hall of Fame, honorary degrees, and commemoration on a U.S. Postage stamp in 2011. There are also a number of facilities named in her honor, including the library at Central Texas College, and an elementary school in Killeen, and the Oveta Culp Hobby Soldier and Family Readiness Center at Fort Hood. Additional Learning: “Memories of Oveta Culp Hobby”: By Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson
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Throughout her professional career, Oveta Culp Hobby held leadership positions, shaped major institutions, and influenced large numbers of people. At 21, Hobby became an expert in the intricacies of parliamentary law, serving as parliamentarian for the Texas House of Representatives and composing a widely-read textbook on parliamentary law, Mr. Chairman, in 1937. She also rose through the ranks to become manager of the Houston Post, one of the nation’s major newspapers. In 1941, Hobby accepted a $1-a-year position as Director of the Women’s Interest Section of the War Department. Army Chief of Staff George C. Marshall instructed her to organize a military unit for women. In 1942 Congress authorized the Women’s Auxiliary Army Corp (WAACS, later become the Women’s Army Corps, WACS). Hobby became America’s first woman Colonel. Her leadership and organizational skills were challenged by recruiting, organizing, and training women in a military environment as often hostile as helpful. She and the WAACS met every test. As she often said, “a debt to democracy and a date with destiny.” When she retired in 1945, she had commanded 100,00 women at more than 200 posts and in every theater of wartime operations. After the war, Hobby returned to the Post, serving as co-editor. From 1952-1955 she played another pioneering role in government as the first Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. She was the only woman to serve in the Cabinet of President Back to search results Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995) was an American politician and businessperson 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 Oveta Culp William P. Hobby South Texas College of Law University of Texas at AustinMilitary serviceAllegiance She also served as the first director of the Women's Army Corps from 1942 to 1945; was sequentially editor, publisher and chair of the board of the Houston Post. She went to a public service when President Dwight D. Eisenhower appointed her administrator of the Federal Security Agency, soon after reorganized as federal executive department, known then as Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and Hobby became its first head. 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. She 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, for several years she served 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. Oveta Culp Hobby is sworn in as the first WAAC by Maj. Gen. Myron C. Cramer. General George C.Marshall, second from left, and Secretary of War Henry L. Stimson were witnesses of the ceremony. During World War II, Hobby headed the Women's Interest Section in the War Department's Bureau of Public Relations[4] for a short time and then became the director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) (later the Women's Army Corps [WAC]), which was created to fill gaps in the Army left by a shortage of men. She was commissioned a colonel in the U.S. Army on 5 July 1943.[4] The members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to wear U.S. Army uniforms and to receive military benefits through the GI Bill. Hobby devoted herself to integrating the WAC within the military, despite considering women's military involvement a temporary necessity, and worked to protect and strengthen the WAC and its image. As director, she raised admission standards and created a Code of Conduct specific to the WAC to create a tightly regulated, high quality organization that portrayed women's corps in a good light. These standards, along with actions to guard the morals and image of members, developed from Hobby's prior experience with publicity and knowledge of the importance of media representation.[5] Hobby achieved the rank of colonel and received the Distinguished Service Medal for efforts during the war. She was the first woman in the Army to receive this award. Hobby joined the Eisenhower administration in 1953 after appointed as head of the Federal Security Agency, a non-cabinet post, although she was invited to sit in on cabinet meetings. Soon, on April 11, 1953, she became the first secretary and first woman, of the new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, which later became the Department of Health and Human Services.[6] This was her second time organizing a new government agency. Among other decisions and actions at HEW, she made the decision to approve Jonas Salk's polio vaccine. Culp attempted to restructure Social Security payroll taxes (FICA and SECA), and was met with strong opposition. She resigned her post in 1955. At the time of her resignation she was embroiled in controversies related to the polio vaccine Cutter Incident. Back in Houston, Hobby resumed her position with the Houston Post as president and editor and cared for her ailing husband. She went on to serve on many boards and advisory positions with various civic and business institutions around the country. Seventeen colleges and universities, including Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania, awarded her honorary doctoral degrees. She was the first woman who was considered for a United States presidential candidacy by an incumbent United States President; Eisenhower encouraged her to run for president in 1960, but she did not run.[7] Colonel Hobby's portrait in military uniform at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. 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. |
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