Oveta Culp Hobby

Public official, born in Killeen, Texas, USA. A lawyer and journalist, she took charge of the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps in October 1942. Some 100 000 women served under her leadership as clerks, cooks, and chauffeurs. A postwar publisher of The Houston Post, she was active in Texas Republican politics and became the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (1953–5).

Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905–August 16, 1995) was the first secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, first commanding officer of the Women's Army Corps, and chairman of the board of the Houston Post. She received her undergraduate degree from Mary Hardin Baylor College for Women and her law degree from the University of Texas at Austin in 1925. Hobby, the former Governor of Texas and the publisher of the Houston Post.

During World War II she headed the War Department's Women's Interest Section for a short time and then became the Director of the Women's Army Auxiliary Corps (later the Women's Army Corps), which was created to fill gaps left by a shortage of men. The members of the WAC were the first women other than nurses to be in uniform. On April 11, 1953, she became the first secretary of the new Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

In 1955 Mrs. Hobby resumed her position with the Houston Post as president and editor, and cared for her husband who was in failing health.

A residence dorm at Texas A&M University in College Station, Texas is named after her.