April 11 - Texas History

Speaker 1: This is today in Texas history on this.

Speaker 2: Day, April the eleventh. In nineteen fifty three, President Eisenhower

appointed Ovetta Hobby the first Secretary of the new Department

of Health, Education and Welfare. The Colleen native had married

former Governor William P. Hobby in nineteen thirty one. During

her extraordinary careers, she took an active part in the

family's communications empire, became an important figure in the Democratic Party,

headed the League of Women's Voters, and organized the Women's

Army Auxiliary Corps during World War II. In her thirty

one months as Secretary of h w the agency greatly

expanded the nation's hospital system, improved the administration of food

and drug laws, increased grants for mental health, set up

a nurse training program, grew the rehabilitation program, and designed

an insurance program to protect Americans against the rising cost

of illness. Missus Hobby left the office in July nineteen

fifty five. I bet you didn't know

Speaker 1: That that was today in Texas history.