Oveta Culp Hobby

United States Secretary of Education

Oveta Culp Hobby (January 19, 1905 – August 16, 1995) was an American politician and businessperson who served as the first United States secretary of health, education, and welfare 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 1942 to 1945; was sequentially editor, publisher and chair of the board of the Houston Post.

She went to a public service when President Dwight D.Eisenhower appointed her administrator of the Federal Security Agency, soon after reorganized as federal executive department, known then as Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and Hobby became its first head.