She had the opportunity to accompany her father when he made his legislative trips to Austin. This allowed her to know and be known by the major political powers in Texas. She was able to see them at work and to understand the parliamentary procedure so that by the time she was 21 years old she was appointed Parliamentarian of the Texas Legislature. She later moved to Houston where she worked as secretary to the Democratic Club and helped plan the 1928 National Democratic convention that was held in Houston that year. She worked on senatorial and mayoral campaigns and even ran for a seat in the Texas House of Representatives. Although she was defeated, she insisted she learned a great deal from the experience. Oveta went to work at the Houston Post Dispatch where she learned the newspaper business from the bottom to the top. Her work with the newspaper put her into contact with her father’s old friend, the former Governor of Texas, William Pettus Hobby. He was then editor and publisher of the Houston Post and KPRC Radio. Although “The Governor,” as she called him, was a widower who was twice her age, they married and had two children, a son, William Pettus Hobby Junior, and a daughter, Jessica. With a husband, two small children and a full time job at the newspaper, she was active in civic and social committees. Her farsighted attitude led her to buy a radio station as well as a television station. During World War II she was asked to come to Washington to create and lead the new women’s army auxiliary corps, which was an all-volunteer organization. The first WAAC khaki uniform was specially made for Director Oveta Culp Hobby. She was promoted to colonel, becoming the first woman colonel in the history of the United States. She would never allow herself to be photographed smiling during this time. She felt that the country was at war, she was a serious person doing a serious job and she didn’t want anyone to have the mistaken opinion that she was having a good time. At the end of the war, she returned to Houston and her job as executive vice president of the Houston Post. She is said to have made the famous comment, “I think I’ll like Houston if they ever get it finished.” She continued to work as a patron of the arts, but she was destined to go back to Washington where she became the first sec-
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retary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare. This made her the first woman in history to be appointed to the Presidential Cabinet. She remained secretary of the Department of Health, Education and Welfare for almost three years. During that time, the agency expanded the nation’s hospital system, improved food and drug laws, increased grants for mental health, set up a nurse training program, enlarged the age rehabilitation program, and designed an insurance program to protect Americans against the rising cost of illnesses. When she left office, President Dwight D. Eisenhower honored her by saying, “None of us will forget your wise counsel, your calm confidence in the face of every kind of difficulty, your concern for people everywhere, the warm heart you brought to your job as well as your talents.” Author Debra Winegarten is an award winning poet and author. She was born and raised in Dallas, Texas, the daughter of Alvin Winegarten and the late Ruthe Litwin Winegarten. She earned two degrees in sociology. With her mother, Ruthe Winegarten,
she co-authored the biography of Dr. Leona “Tiny” Hawkins, one of the first AfricanAmericans in Texas to own a nursing home. Debra’s second book was Katherine Stinson: the Flying Schoolgirl. It is a biography of Katherine Stinson who, in 1912, was the fourth U.S. woman to earn her pilot’s license. The Flying Schoolgirl was a finalist for Forward Magazine’s Book of the Year Award. Her third book, Mum’s the Word, was written to honor her mother. She sent out 256 letters with stamped and self-addressed envelopes and asked each of the recipients to send back a story about her mother. She received 140 replies and asked the same people to pre-order and pre-pay for the book so she could get it published. Her mother didn’t remember some of the stories, but she said they “sounded like things she would have done.” There’s Jews in Texas?, Debra Winegarten’s fourth book, won the 2011 Poetica Magazine National Competition. Debra works for The University of Texas at Austin’s Astronomy Department. She also teaches Sociology at South University.
She enjoys playing her flute, swimming, hosting potluck dinners for her Austin friends, reading, and visiting with “the cats who own me.” She says, “One thing about writing history, we are always looking back from where we are.” She is proud to admit that she is following in the footsteps of her mother, well-known research historian and author Ruthe Winegarten. “My mom was always having gatherings when the most powerful women in Texas came over to our house to discuss political ideas,” she said. “While many people talk about waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of their mother’s sewing machine, I remember waking up in the middle of the night to the sound of my mother typing on her IBM Selectric typewriter. It is still one of the most peaceful late-night sounds for me.” The book is published by the University of Texas Press. Oveta Culp Hobby’s son, Bill Hobby, who was Lieutenant Governor of Texas from 1973 to 1991 said, “Debbie Winegarten had done an excellent job of capturing Mother’s spirit.”
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