Retirement and Philanthropy
Oveta Culp Hobby, publisher, Houston Post. Used by permission, © Joe Baraban. Courtesy of the Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
It annoys me a little that people pull back and say, “Well, a woman did that.” Why not a woman?
OVETA CULP HOBBY
After retiring from her position as the secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare in 1955, Oveta took over the reins of the Houston Post with a renewed vigor while tending to the governor. Shortly after her return to Houston, his health improved. For the next nine years, they worked in “a single large room in their house or in adjacent offices at the Post.”1 But Oveta remained active in the community and in championing causes dear to her heart.
High on her list was civil rights. Both she and the governor had been unwavering supporters of civil rights for all Americans, both personally and professionally. In addition to her early involvement with the League of Women Voters, she had a strong history of supporting black women as director of the Women’s Army Corps.
When the Supreme Court was due to hand down the Brown v. Board of Education decision that desegregated the nation’s public schools in 1954, the Houston Post was ready. Page one carried statements by every major religious leader in support of the decision.2
Oveta and Governor Hobby had a history of helping out people who would later become famous and influential. Kay Bailey was one such person. Kay Bailey graduated from the University of Texas Law School in 1967, one of thirteen women in a class of 390 graduates. At the time, no major law firms would hire a woman as a partner; indeed, as a woman Kay had a difficult time finding a job at any law firm in Houston. Discouraged, she decided to pursue a different way of using her law degree. Without an appointment, she dropped in to KPRC-TV, the Houston NBC television station owned by the Houston Post, which was owned, in turn, by Oveta and the governor.
Unfortunately, there was no job opening at the station, and Kay Bailey had no journalism experience. Nevertheless, the local news director was intrigued because “no one with a law degree had ever applied for a job at KPRC before.” He told the station manager they should find a place for Kay Bailey.
Walking to Governor William Pettus Hobby’s funeral. Front row: Diana Hobby, Oveta Culp Hobby, Bill Hobby. Back row: Jessica Hobby Catto, Henry Catto. Children: Paul and Laura Hobby. Courtesy Dolph Briscoe Center for American History.
The station manager spoke to Mrs. Hobby, “who was enthusiastic about a young woman with a law degree working for the station. Oveta told the station manager that having her television station put the first woman on broadcast news was right up her alley.”3 And so, Kay Bailey was hired.
Kay Bailey Hutchison, now a former U.S. senator from the state of Texas, credits Oveta Hobby for giving her her first break in public life.
When Governor William Pettus Hobby died on June 7, 1964, at the age of eighty-six, LBJ was president of the United States. LBJ sent the following message to Oveta:
June 8, 1964
TEXAS and the nation are diminished by the loss of Governor Hobby. Throughout the last 30 years he was a wise, charitable, and loyal friend to me. He viewed the world with tolerant eyes and his wit and humor always salvaged a time of crisis and made it endurable.
As a Governor, as a publisher, as a counselor to the nation’s leaders, as a husband, father, and friend, what he did in his lifetime and the honorable way in which he did it should serve as an inspiration to young men of our land. For the achievements of Governor Hobby are the works of good citizenship in its noblest form.
Lady Bird and I send you, Bill and Diana, Henry and Jessica, our love and our prayers in your time of grief.
LYNDON B. JOHNSON4
Three years later, on December 12, 1967, LBJ and Oveta together attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony when the Central Texas College and Library in Killeen were dedicated. President Johnson promised to give some of his papers to the library. The library was named the Oveta Culp Hobby Memorial Library in honor of Oveta’s work for the Women’s Army Corps.
Oveta was unable to attend the ceremony honoring her when her birthplace house in Killeen was designated with a historical marker, but she sent this message:
My lifelong friends will know how greatly it disappoints me to not be in Killeen today for the dedication of this marker by the Killeen Sesquicentennial Committee.
Oveta Culp Hobby and President Lyndon Baines Johnson remained lifelong friends. Here she is attending a Christmas party at the White House. Courtesy of the Oveta Culp Hobby Memorial Library, Central Texas College, Killeen, Texas.
Historic marker outside Oveta Culp Hobby’s birthplace in Killeen, Texas. Courtesy Debra L. Winegarten.
I love Killeen. In my childhood days, I knew every person in town, as did my parents and grandparents.
Killeen was a wonderful place in which to grow up. Our people were fiercely independent, but a caring people. They knew that with the joys of independence must come responsibilities. They assumed their responsibilities.
This was the Killeen that shaped the character, the ethical standards, the sense of responsibility and the independence of all who were fortunate enough to grow up there.
I wish I could be there now, at this moment, to feel again the home of my childhood. With all my heart, I thank you for this honor. No other could mean more to me than this honor from the community that gave me birth.5
Today, Killeen houses Fort Hood, home of the largest Army post in the U.S., with over 65,000 personnel. Oveta’s name is prominently displayed at the post—both an elementary school and the fort’s Soldier and Family Readiness Center proudly bear her name.
Texas stories were Oveta’s specialty. She had been around men all her life, in the Texas legislature and at the Houston Post. Many of these men were or had been farmers or oil riggers, plainspoken men who swapped stories that would not have been told in Park Avenue apartments. Some of them were sidesplitting, but only if you had more than a glass of wine to go with them.
Joan Braden, Oveta’s aide at the HEW, said of her, “Oveta was a tougher boss than any man for whom I’ve ever worked. She had grown up in a man’s world, competing against men and competing successfully. By which I mean that often enough she had won. The effort had required more self-discipline than most women of her generation ever had to demand of themselves.”6
Her granddaughter remembered that Oveta had to remind herself to make “small talk” with the wives when she went to parties. Because of her intellect and experience, Oveta was often more interested in the discussions the men were having. In 1978, a Texas Monthly article said, “Mrs. Hobby’s skill at handling men was legendary. ‘She just exuded this sort of sensuality. She could have her hand on your husband’s arm and you wouldn’t mind because you knew she wasn’t interested in sex—just power.’”7
In 1983, Oveta sold the Houston Post to the Toronto Sun Publishing Company for about $130 million. Pat Roberson, an employee of the Houston Post for a number of years, went to the executive offices on the last day the Hobbys owned the Post to tell the staff goodbye:
To my surprise, the offices were empty. I looked in the kitchen, and there was Mrs. Hobby, opening and closing the cabinet doors—not as if she was checking what was on the shelves, but more like she was taking a last look, as if she was thinking of all the years she’d been a part of the newspaper.
“I hope I’m not intruding,” I said to her.
“Oh, no,” she responded.
“I wanted to tell you goodbye,” I continued, “and to tell you how much I have enjoyed working for you and your family.”
She smiled and thanked me.
“I promise you,” I went on, “that we will take real good care of your newspaper.”
Mrs. Hobby smiled again. “Pat,” she said, “I really would appreciate it if you would.”8
With the newspaper sold, Oveta and her family company, H&C Communications, still owned five television stations.
Ron Stone, a television reporter for KPRC-TV, Channel 2, said:
I remember when Mrs. Hobby was made a member of the Texas Business Hall of Fame. I went to report her induction on the 5 p.m. news on Channel 2, one of the television stations owned by the Hobbys. I looked into the camera and announced that Mrs. Hobby was indicted. Realizing my error immediately, I said, “I meant to say, ‘Mrs. Hobby was indicted’ a second time!”
But what I meant to say was inducted.9
I walked into the Newsroom after the telecast, the phones were ringing off the wall, and everyone was laughing and saying, “Ron, that has to be Mrs. Hobby on the phone, and you are out of here!”
Indeed Mrs. Hobby was on the phone. She convulsed with laughter, and said, “You have just added credence to what all my friends say they think should have happened a long time ago!”
I tried to apologize, and Mrs. Hobby said, “Now don’t worry about it,” and then she began laughing again. Mrs. Hobby did not suffer fools lightly, but in this case, she let this fool get away with it.10
The end of another era came in 1992. At that time, H&C Communications, the Hobby family enterprise that owned their various media holdings, sold its five television stations. Among the purchasers, the Washington Post bought the Houston and San Antonio stations, while the Weather Channel bought the Nashville station.11 The estimated selling price for all the stations was $600 million.12
With the selling of the newspaper and television stations, Oveta’s hold on and work in broadcasting concluded. But her impact was not forgotten, and she was often called upon to comment upon current events, analyze, or give her perspective.
In her later years, Oveta had time to reflect on some of her earlier activities:
“It is true, I was the first woman to do several jobs that were once only open to men . . . It annoys me a little that people pull back and say, ‘Well, a woman did that.’ Why not a woman? I think we ought to get this out of the whole lexicon of thinking and writing, that surprise when a woman does something,” she says, and pauses a moment before her hearty laugh erupts.
“You know, I was just thinking,” she says, as her laughter ebbs, “men would come in my office, reporters, and they’d always look for that ‘feminine touch’ . . . and ask things like, ‘Do you know how to make hollandaise sauce?’ It just throws you off.”13
The Associated Press’s Biographical Sketch of Oveta, issued July 15, 1953, shows the extent to which the fact that she was a woman was apparently salient to the public. Oveta was compared to Miss Frances Perkins, the first woman to hold a cabinet position, that of secretary of labor under Franklin D. Roosevelt. The sketch noted that “Miss Perkins’ hats were famous, while Mrs. Hobby was known particularly for her coolie hats. However, she liked all kinds of hats and had a large number. ‘They really aren’t frivolous,’ she said, explaining: ‘When you have to attend a lot of meetings in one day, a change of hat is the quickest way to freshen up.’”14
Oveta understood how hard it was for the media to view her as simply a competent person, regardless of the fact that she was also a woman. She told the following story, which shows that Oveta was not the only female to find herself in that position:
A friend of mine became president of Lord & Taylor, and I think she was the first woman head of a really big retail chain. I wired her and said, “Right On,” or the equivalent that we said then, and she wrote me back and said, “You know, Oveta, during the war, I used to read the press on you and think, she ought to do better than that. Then at my first big press conference, a male reporter raised his hand and asked me what size shoe I wore. I finally realized, it’s out of your control. They are going to get back to the woman thing.”
Oveta added, “I’d like to live long enough to see people not be surprised by the fact that a woman succeeded in something.”15
. . .
Oveta was a great collector of artwork and donated many of her prized pieces to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, for which she was a trustee for a number of years. An avid art collector starting after World War II, Oveta understood the importance of having great art available to the public.
Whenever Oveta got tired of a painting or wanted to make room for a new acquisition, she would donate several of her works to the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. Over the years, Pierre Matisse, a New York art buyer and the son of the famous painter Henri Matisse, acquired paintings from important artists like Joan Miró, Henri Matisse, and Modigliani for Oveta. During her period as secretary of HEW, Oveta had Pierre mail her paintings to Washington, D.C., so she could decorate her apartment there.
After the governor’s death on June 7, 1964, and Oveta’s retirement from the Houston Post and its subsequent sale, she moved to a large condominium apartment in the River Oaks area to be closer to her children and grandchildren. When she closed up the big house, she donated many of her large art pieces to the Museum of Fine Arts.
Fortune magazine ran a story in 1982 with its annual list of the nation’s wealthiest people. Oveta’s wealth was listed at $200 million, and her longtime friend, George Brown, $100 million. “Poor man,” Oveta told Pat Bowman, her personal secretary, “I think I’d better call him today and see if wants to borrow some money!”16
In November 1984, she donated her collection of master drawings, valued at over $1,300,000, to the museum. Among the drawings were works from Degas, Gris, Matisse (four), Modigliani, and Pablo Picasso (two). Oveta and the Hobby Foundation donated other types of artwork, such as a 1939 Marino Marini bronze sculpture, the Pilgrim II. Oveta also made outright cash donations to help the museum purchase pieces such as Picasso’s The Rower.
. . .
Oveta remained an avid reader throughout her life. Her granddaughter, Laura Beckworth, remembers that Oveta loved a good P. D. James mystery and always read the daily newspapers. Oveta enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren, often coming to their house when they got out of school so she could help supervise their homework. Laura thinks Oveta appreciated the chance to share in her grandchildren’s lives—in part because during earlier years, she had been so busy with governmental responsibilities that she missed those moments in her own children’s lives.
Oveta Culp Hobby, dubbed the “Sixth Most Well-Dressed Woman” in America. National Dress Institute, New York.
Laura remembers going over to the big house on Remington Lane before Oveta sold it. Her grandmother would let her dress up in her fabulous evening gowns and put on her jewelry. Laura remembers riding the elevator in the house down to the grand ballroom where she would pretend she was attending a great ball. She still misses not being able to call Oveta on the phone so they could discuss current events or the attendees at a Houston social event.17
Oveta died of a stroke on Wednesday, August 16, 1995, at her home in Houston, Texas. She was ninety years old.
Telegrams and letters poured into Houston from all over the country and the world. Lady Bird Johnson sent a telegram:
Lyndon and I were so lucky to have shared your mother’s life. She was one of the most able, brilliant and interesting people we had the good fortune to know. I recall many happy times of working together and enjoying Oveta’s friendship. I hope you all will draw solace from her long and extraordinary life and great achievement.
Lady Bird18
Mattie E. (“Patty”) Treadwell, who served as an assistant to Oveta when she was WAC director, said:
When Oveta Hobby died, I was told that her funeral instructions included the request that Mr. Jim Crowther and myself fold the flag and hand it to the family at the private graveside services. This flag was one that had hung in Governor Hobby’s office and had covered his casket. It was heavy silk with gold fringe.
I had never folded a flag in my life, so just before the funeral I practiced with a nephew who was a Scoutmaster.
At things turned out, the color guard from Fort Hood folded the flag and handed it to me, and I in turn presented it to the family.
I could not help but think that in a way Oveta Hobby’s scheme was that the person who was there at the start of the history of her role in the Women’s Army Corps should end it in this fashion.19
Oveta specified most of the details regarding her funeral. As in life, she wanted things to run as smoothly as possible and left instructions that the ceremony should be reviewed and rehearsed. She asked that her coffin be wooden and draped with the same flag that hung in Governor Hobby’s office; afterwards, the flag was to be placed in the hands of her children, William and Jessica. She asked to be buried in the most presentable dressing gown she had left at the time. She also asked that Mrs. Bowman ensure that her hair was properly clean and tidy.
Oveta was a grand dame in the true sense of the word, living her life with dignity and ensuring that her final rites continued that tradition. This hard-working, tough-as-nails woman was quick to acknowledge the help of others in her life and to disparage her own contributions to her successes.
One hundred years after the birth of a small girl in a little town in Central Texas, the legacy of women in the military is due in large part to the leadership efforts of Oveta Culp Hobby.
Many of the careers women hold today are the result of Oveta’s influence. Some of the social service agencies in the federal government today exist because of her tenacious vision. The tolerance, culture, and cosmopolitan nature of the city of Houston exist in part because one woman dared to follow her inner passions. May her story help you to discover and follow your own dreams and turn them into tangible realities.
