Oveta Culp Hobby

thumb|Col. Oveta Culp Hobby (right) talks with Auxiliary Margaret Peterson and Capt. Elizabeth Gilbert at [[Mitchel Air Force Base|Mitchel Field, New York. (photo: Al Aumuller, World Telegram & Sun.)]]

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 (now known as Health and Human Services) from 1953 to 1955. A member of the Republican Party, Hobby was the second woman ever to serve in a presidential cabinet.

She also served as the first director of the Women's Army Corps from 16 May 1942 to 11 July 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

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, but she did not formally enroll and therefore never received a degree. 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, before beginning a journalism career in 1931, at age 26. Hobby was a member of Junior League of Houston, TX.

War service

thumb|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 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. 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.

Political career

Hobby joined the Eisenhower administration in 1953 after being 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. 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.

thumb|Colonel Hobby's portrait in military uniform at the [[National Portrait Gallery (United States)|National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C.]]

Personal life and family

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.

In 1996, Hobby was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame.
On December 7, 2021, her 1943 oil portrait in uniform painted by noted portrait artist Seymour M. Stone was installed in the Killeen Main Library in Killeen, Texas.
The Education Center at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas is named for her.

Sources

Pando, Robert T. "Oveta Culp Hobby: A Study in Power and Control." Ph.D. dissertation, Florida State University, 2008, 442 pages. https://books.google.com/books/about/Oveta_Culp_Hobby.html?id=id6lXwAACAAJ
Treadwell, Mattie E. The Woman's Army Corps. The U.S. Army in World War II (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 1954). [https://web.archive.org/web/20111101153250/http://www.history.army.mil/html/books/011/11-8/index.html]
"U.S. Army Women's Museum Celebrates Women's History Month: Oveta Culp Hobby" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xs3-PBXqVq0&t=66s
Walsh, Kelli Cardenas. "Oveta Culp Hobby: A Transformational Leader from the Texas Legislature to Washington, D.C." Ph.D. dissertation, University of South Carolina, 2006, 199 pages.
Winegarten, Debra L. Oveta Culp Hobby: Colonel, Cabinet Member, Philanthropist. (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014). https://books.google.com/books/about/Oveta_Culp_Hobby.html?id=M-dlAwAAQBAJ&source=kp_book_description

References

External links

Papers of Oveta Culp Hobby, Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
Guide to the Oveta Culp Hobby Papers, 1817–1995 at the Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University
Oveta Culp Hobby and the Women's Army Corps
Spring, Kelly. "Oveta Hobby". National Women's History Museum. 2017.
Women in the U.S. Army
War-time interview with Oveta Culp Hobby on January 16, 1944, edition of CBS's World News Today