Lou Henry Hoover

Lou Henry Hoover
First Lady of the United States
In office March 4, 1929 – March 4, 1933
Preceded by	Grace Coolidge
Succeeded by	Eleanor Roosevelt
Personal details
Born	(1874-03-29)March 29, 1874 Waterloo, Iowa
Died	January 7, 1944(1944-01-07) (aged 69) New York, New York
Cause of death	heart attack
Resting place	West Branch, Iowa
Spouse	Herbert Hoover
Children	Herbert Charles Allan Henry
Occupation	First Lady of the United States
Signature

Lou Henry Hoover (March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was the wife of President of the United States Herbert Hoover, and First Lady, 1929-1933.

Marrying her engineer husband in 1899, she travelled widely with him and became a cultivated scholar and linguist. During World War I, she helped him in providing relief for Belgian refugees. As First Lady, she oversaw construction of the presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp, Virginia. She also made many popular broadcasts, often about the Girl Scouts, of which she was President.

Mrs Hoover predeceased her husband by twenty years.

Life

Lou Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa to Charles Delano Henry, a banker, and Florence Ida Weed, his wife. Lou grew up something of a tomboy in Waterloo, Whittier, California and Monterey, California. Charles Henry took his daughter on camping trips in the hills—her greatest pleasures in her early teens. Lou became a fine horsewoman; she hunted, and preserved specimens with the skill of a taxidermist; she developed an enthusiasm for rocks, minerals, and mining. She attended San Jose Normal School and in 1894 enrolled at Stanford University as the school's only female geology major. That year she met Herbert Hoover, then a senior.

Lou Henry, age 17, on a burro at Acton, California on 22 August 1891

By the time he graduated the following June, they had reached an understanding but put off wedding plans while she continued her education and he pursued his engineering career in Australia. From there in 1898, the year she graduated from Stanford, Hoover cabled a marriage proposal, which she promptly accepted by return wire. Although raised an Episcopalian, Miss Henry decided to become a Quaker. But because there was no Quaker Meeting in Monterey, they were married in a civil ceremony performed by Father Ramon Mestres, a Roman Catholic priest of the San Carlos Borromeo Mission.

Both Hoover and Lou Henry were aged 24 when they married on February 10, 1899, at the home of the bride's parents in Monterey, California. The next day they sailed from San Francisco for Shanghai, China where they spent four days in the Astor House Hotel. The newlyweds soon settled into their first home, a large house in Tianjin. Hoover's job required extensive travel throughout remote, primitive and dangerous areas, which they did together. Mrs. Hoover was present with her husband during the Boxer Rebellion. Possessed of a natural ear for languages, she became quite proficient in Chinese. In the White House, at times, the Hoovers would converse in Chinese to foil eavesdroppers. To date, she is the only First Lady to speak an Asian language.

Mrs. Hoover also distinguished herself by becoming the first First Lady to broadcast on a regular basis. While she did not have her own radio program, she was a guest speaker on a number of occasions from 1929 through 1933, often advocating for volunteerism, or discussing the work of the Girl Scouts. Radio critics praised her for having an excellent radio voice and for speaking with confidence (see for example Larry Wolters, "First Lady to Give First Talk At White House," Chicago Tribune, 22 March 1931, p. G9).

The Hoovers had two sons:

• Herbert Charles Hoover, Jr. (1903–1969) - engineer, diplomat. Born in London, he by age two had been around the world twice with his globe-trotting parents. He graduated from Stanford University in 1925 and began working as an aircraft engineer. He taught briefly, 1928–1929, at the Harvard Business School. Eventually he turned to geophysical engineering, founded the United Geophysical Company in 1935 and developing new electronic instruments to discover oil. During 1953-1954 he mediated the oil dispute between Britain and Iran that provided for the latter to nationalize its petroleum. He was appointed under-secretary of state for Middle Eastern affairs 1954-1957 by President Eisenhower. He died in Pasadena, CA.
• Allan Henry Hoover (1907–1993) - mining engineer. Born in London, he graduated in economics from Stanford University in 1929 and earned a master's degree from the Harvard Business School in 1931. He went into banking and operated a ranch in California for a time, but eventually he, too, became a mining engineer. A private man, he shunned publicity throughout his career. He died in Portola Valley, California.

Mrs. Hoover was also well versed in Latin; she collaborated with her husband in translating Agricola's De Re Metallica, a 16th century encyclopedia of mining and metallurgy. The Hoover translation was published in 1912, and is still in print as the standard English translation.

During World War I, she assisted her husband in providing relief for Belgian refugees. For her work she was decorated in 1919 by King Albert I of Belgium. While Hoover served in the cabinet of Presidents Harding and Coolidge, she was active as national president of the Girl Scouts of the USA. Camp Lou Henry Hoover in Middleville, New Jersey, is named for her and run by the Heart of New Jersey Council of the Girl Scouts. The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House in Palo Alto's foothills is now the official residence of the President of Stanford University. It is located near the campus's Hoover Tower, home of the Hoover Institution, and is designated a National Historic Landmark. Lou Henry Hoover Elementary School in Whittier was built in 1938 and was named in her honor. In 2005, Lou Henry Elementary School was opened in her honor in Waterloo. One of the brick dorms known now as "The Classics" at San Jose State University is named "Hoover Hall" in her honor. She funded the construction of the first Girl Scout house in Palo Alto, California. It is called Lou Henry Hoover Girl Scout House. It is the oldest Girl Scout House in continuous use in the country.

As First Lady, she discontinued the New Year's Day reception, the annual open house observance begun by Abigail Adams in 1801. She played a critical role in designing and overseeing construction of the presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Virginia.

Mrs. Hoover died of a heart attack in New York City on January 7, 1944. She was buried in Palo Alto, California, and later reinterred at West Branch, Iowa, next to the president, following his death in 1964.

See also

• Battle of Tientsin
• List of guests and residents of the Astor House Hotel (Shanghai)
• Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House
• Lou Henry Hoover Elementary School

References

• Allen, Anne Beiser and Jon L. Wakelyn (2000). An independent woman: the life of Lou Henry Hoover. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Press
• Gummere, Amelia Mott (1922). The journal and essays of John Woolman. New York: The Macmillan Company
• Hart, Craig (2004). A genealogy of the wives of the American presidents and their first two generations of descent. North Carolina, Jefferson: McFarland & Co., Inc., pp. 129-133
• Hill, H. H. (1881). History of Lee County [Illinois]. 873 pages. pp. 829-832. Genealogy and history of the Robert and Abigail Pancoast Hunt family, including a transcription of their Quaker wedding document.
• Hunt, Charles Cummins (1906). A genealogical history of the Robert and Abigail Pancoast Hunt family. Columbus, Ohio: Champlin Press, pp. 127-128
• Hynes, Judy (1997). The Descendants of John and Elizabeth (Borton) Woolman. Mount Holly, New Jersey: John Woolman Memorial Association
• Preston, Diana (2000). The Boxer Rebellion: the dramatic story of China's war on foreigners that shook the world in the Summer of 1900. New York: Walker
• Agricola's De Re Metallica, translated by Herbert Hoover and Lou Henry Hoover, full text (650 pages) and illustrations

External links

• Biography of Lou Henry Hoover
• The Herbert Hoover Presidential Library-Museum
• Biographical sketch of Lou Henry Hoover Hosted by the National Archives and Records Administration
• First Lady Biography: Lou Hoover Hosted by the National First Ladies' Library
• Anne Beiser Allen and Jon L. Wakelyn; An Independent Woman: The Life of Lou Henry Hoover Greenwood Press, 2000
• Biography of William Henry, great-grandfather of Lou Henry Hoover
• Biography of Abigail Hunt, great-grandmother of Lou Henry Hoover
• Lou Hoover at Findagrave
• Lou Henry Hoover papers at the Hoover Institution Archives