Lou HENRY was born on
29 Mar 1874 in Waterloo, Black Hawk, Iowa, USA. She died on 7 Jan 1944 in
Waldorf Astoria, New York City, New York. She was buried in Hoover Cemetery,
West Branch, Iowa, USA.
What are
your dreams? Would you like to travel the world, live in the White House,
write books, or be an honorary leader of all the Girl Scouts of America?
Well, one famous woman had all of these adventures and more during her
lifetime.__Her name was Lou Henry. How did she happen to have what seems to
be a boy's name? Her father had wanted a boy and that's how it came to be.
Lou's father, Charles Henry, was a banker in Waterloo, Iowa where his
daughter was born in 1874. Lou, her younger sister, Jean, and Mr. Henry could
be seen around town hiking, riding horses, skating, and camping. Mr. Henry
made sure his daughters knew about the outdoors, while Lou's mother,
Florence, made sure that her daughters knew about responsibilities around the
house like sewing, music, and art. Lou was lucky to have parents who helped her
discover much about the world and her future.__Later, the family moved and
settled in Whittier, California and then went on to Monterey. Lou planned to
be a teacher and attended San Jose Normal School, but teaching was not the
best match for Lou. Then, in 1894 something happened that changed Lou Henry's
life forever. During that summer she heard Professor John Casper Branner of
Stanford University speak about "The Bones of the Earth". That was
it! She convinced her parents that she should become a geology student at
Stanford University. It was the life for her! Being the only girl in geology
didn't seem unusual to her. While going to college, she met Herbert Hoover, a
young Quaker geology student. They became friends and discovered they had
both been born in the same year. They were also both born in Iowa only 100
miles apart!__Lou Henry married Herbert Hoover on February 10, 1899. The next
day they sailed to China where Mr. Hoover would become a mining engineer.
What adventures they had! Lou helped her husband by mapping the parts of
China he would visit, researching mining laws, assisting with reports, and
visiting mines. Her college degree in geology was put to good use. When the
Boxer Rebellion erupted, Mrs. Hoover, true to her style, remained courageous and
stayed to help.__As Mrs. Hoover traveled the world with her husband on
steamers, tugboats, trains, cars, buggies, and horses, she was Herbert's
helpmate. Two boys, Herbert Jr. in 1903, and Allen Henry in 1907, were born
to the Hoovers. The children traveled on ships with their parents. One of the
sons had traveled around the world three times by the time he was four years
old.__When the Hoovers moved to England, Mrs. Hoover continued to be a leader
who helped many stranded Americans return home at the beginning of World War
I. Lou was able to see a problem and help solve it. She made a house a
"home" wherever they lived. She also found time to help her husband
translate a mining book from Latin into English.__In 1921 the family moved to
Washington, D.C. when Mr. Hoover became Secretary of Commerce. The rest of
the Hoovers' lives would be built around public service. In March of 1929 Mr.
Hoover became President of the United States and Mrs. Hoover became the First
Lady .__Mrs. Hoover made the White House come alive. She used some of her own
money to have special furniture made for the Monroe room. Famous musicians
were asked to give recitals. Being the First Lady was not always pleasant
because of the many problems in the United States due to the Great Depression.
The Hoovers only lived in the White House for four years.__Mrs. Hoover worked
very closely with the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A. after 1917 and served as its
president. Her lifelong love of the outdoors, both as a child and adult,
meant that she always had done activities just like a Girl Scout. She was
also the leader of one scout troop in Washington, D. C. It was named
"Troop 8" and she helped its members fulfill many goals.__After
leaving the White House, Mr. and Mrs. Hoover spent time at their homes in
Palo Alto in California and in New York City. Mrs. Hoover continued to enjoy
her family, including three grandchildren, and friends. She still was a
friend of the Girl Scouts. Mrs. Hoover died in 1944 at her Waldorf Astoria
home in New York City.__What made Lou Henry Hoover special? She was a person
who was the first to do things that were important. People said she was
wonderful at conversation because she knew how to listen. She learned from
others and had an inquisitive mind throughout her life. She liked to take
pictures with her Brownie camera and was always trying new camera technology.
She even began using a movie camera. After planning for and seeing that Camp
Rapidan was built as a weekend retreat, she made that community her home away
from home. Later the camp was given to the United States. When the Hoovers
found out there was no school for the local children, they provided both a
school and teacher.__Lou Henry Hoover was in a quiet way a woman before her
time. She was adventurous throughout her life. She was a humanitarian who
truly liked others and wanted to be of help. She helped her husband feed
others whose lives were upset because of war. As First Lady, Lou Hoover
wasn't just a hostess, wife, and mother, but also was a spokeswoman and a very
involved helpmate to the president. The Hoovers were equals and partners. She
was an early leader of women.__And so we end the story of Lou Henry
Hoover.__Source: Herbert Hoover Presidential Library
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Lou married
(MRIN:1128) President Herbert Clark
HOOVER, son of Jesse Clark HOOVER and Hulda Randall MINTHORN (MRIN:1129), on 10 Feb 1899 in Monterey,
Monterey Co., California, USA. Herbert was born on 10 Aug 1874 in West
Branch, Cedar, Iowa, USA. He died on 20 Oct 1964 in New York City, New York
Co., New York. He was buried in Hoover Cemetery, West Branch, Iowa, USA.
Herbert worked
as President, United States.
Son of a Quaker
blacksmith, Herbert Clark Hoover brought to the Presidency an unparalleled
reputation for public service as an engineer, administrator, and
humanitarian.
Born in an Iowa
village in 1874, he grew up in Oregon. He enrolled at Stanford University
when it opened in 1891, graduating as a mining engineer.
He married his
Stanford sweetheart, Lou Henry, and they went to China, where he worked for a
private corporation as China's leading engineer. In June 1900 the Boxer
Rebellion caught the Hoovers in Tientsin. For almost a month the settlement
was under heavy fire. While his wife worked in the hospitals, Hoover directed
the building of barricades, and once risked his life rescuing Chinese
children.
One week before
Hoover celebrated his 40th birthday in London, Germany declared war on
France, and the American Consul General asked his help in getting stranded
tourists home. In six weeks his committee helped 120,000 Americans return to
the United States. Next Hoover turned to a far more difficult task, to feed
Belgium, which had been overrun by the German army.
After the United
States entered the war, President Wilson appointed Hoover head of the Food
Administration. He succeeded in cutting consumption of foods needed overseas
and avoided rationing at home, yet kept the Allies fed.
After the
Armistice, Hoover, a member of the Supreme Economic Council and head of the
American Relief Administration, organized shipments of food for starving
millions in central Europe. He extended aid to famine-stricken Soviet Russia
in 1921. When a critic inquired if he was not thus helping Bolshevism, Hoover
retorted, "Twenty million people are starving. Whatever their politics, they
shall be fed!"
After capably
serving as Secretary of Commerce under Presidents Harding and Coolidge,
Hoover became the Republican Presidential nominee in 1928. He said then:
"We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than
ever before in the history of any land." His election seemed to ensure
prosperity. Yet within months the stock market crashed, and the Nation
spiraled downward into depression.
After the crash
Hoover announced that while he would keep the Federal budget balanced, he would
cut taxes and expand public works spending.
In 1931
repercussions from Europe deepened the crisis, even though the President
presented to Congress a program asking for creation of the Reconstruction
Finance Corporation to aid business, additional help for farmers facing
mortgage foreclosures, banking reform, a loan to states for feeding the
unemployed, expansion of public works, and drastic governmental economy.
At the same time
he reiterated his view that while people must not suffer from hunger and
cold, caring for them must be primarily a local and voluntary responsibility.
His opponents in
Congress, who he felt were sabotaging his program for their own political
gain, unfairly painted him as a callous and cruel President. Hoover became
the scapegoat for the depression and was badly defeated in 1932. In the
1930's he became a powerful critic of the New Deal, warning against
tendencies toward statism.
In 1947 President
Truman appointed Hoover to a commission, which elected him chairman, to
reorganize the Executive Departments. He was appointed chairman of a similar
commission by President Eisenhower in 1953. Many economies resulted from both
commissions' recommendations. Over the years, Hoover wrote many articles and
books, one of which he was working on when he died at 90 in New York City on
October 20, 1964.
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