World War II Database

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseOveta Culp was born to Isaac William Culp and Emma Elizabeth Hoover in Killeen, Texas, United States in 1905. She studied at Mary Hardin Baylor College for Women and South Texas College of Law and Commerce, both located in Texas, but did not attain a degree from either institution. In 1926, she became a parliamentarian of the Texas House of Representatives. In 1931, she married publisher of the newspaper The Houston Post and former Governor of Texas William P. Hobby and took on her new husband's surname. In the following years, she worked as the research editor and then in various executive positions at The Houston Post. After the United States entered WW2, she briefly served as the head of the Women's Interest Section of the US War Department before being made the first Director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) in May 1942; the women under her command were the first women to serve in the US Army in positions other than nurses. In Jul 1943, WAAC was renamed the Women's Army Corps (WAC). While running the organization for war efforts, she also had to deal with political opponents who fought the WAAC/WAC based on their reactionary social values. When Hobby was relieved by Westray Boyce in 1945, about 150,000 women had served with the WAAC/WAC, and both General Douglas MacArthur and General Dwight Eisenhower had high praises for the women. She completed her WW2 service at the rank of colonel and became the first woman in the US Army to be awarded the Distinguished Service Medal. After the war, she served as the head of the Federal Security Agency and then the first Secretary of the newly established Department of Health, Education, and Welfare under Eisenhower, now the US President. In 1955, she resigned from government service to take care of her ailing husband, meanwhile resuming her career at The Houston Post. In 1960, Eisenhower encouraged her to seek US Presidency, but she expressed no interest. She passed away from a stroke in Houston, Texas in 1995. She was buried at Glenwood Cemetery in Houston.

Oveta Hobby Interactive Map

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