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Because her department is newest in the Cabinet, Secretary Hobby must walk at the end of all official Cabinet processions, yet her Department of Health, Education and Welfare is bigger in budget terms ($1.7 billion in fiscal 1953) than all other Cabinet departments, save Defense and Treasury. She must fend off more pressure groups and lobbies than any ten Senate committees; she must woo a shy but fascinated Congress (already she has made nine trips to Capitol Hill). Yet, amid the bewildering mass of unrelated facts, figures and projects. Oveta Hobby was quick to discover a theme of organic unity: through the department, she said recently, runs "a common thread of family service. Cut one, and you destroy the lifeline of the others."
The Senate Agreed. Ike Eisenhower chose Oveta Hobby to run the new welfare department partly because Oveta is a Texan and he owed an election debt to Texas, partly because she is a woman and he had promised to install women in positions of responsibility. But he chose her principally because Oveta Hobby possesses a rare talent for tactful administration. The Senate agreed with the President. Minority Leader Lyndon Johnson, a Texan himself, took her under his wing and introduced her around Capitol Hill. When her name came up before the Senate Finance Committee, the Senators confirmed her in seven minutes.
"Texans," explained Lyndon Johnson later, "are not always in agreement on everything. But there's one thing there's no disagreement on—that's Oveta. She's the type of woman you'd like to have for a daughter or a sister, a wife or a mother, or the trustee of your estate."
The Call Was Necessary. Oveta Hobby's life moves with the precision of a metronome. At home in Houston, she issues household instructions to her domestic staff at weekly meetings. A fitful sleeper, she keeps a notebook on her bedside table, makes frequent midnight notes on her "planned life." Her office appointments are lined up on a conveyor-belt schedule. Her double-handled calfskin bag, which she carries everywhere, is a special efficiency container which she designed for her business papers, her purse, and a Book of Common Prayer.
She never bustles, but she is constantly busy. Her calm demeanor almost never deserts her. When she is displeased, her expression telegraphs the clue: her warm smile vanishes, is instantly replaced by a gelid stare. She is never fussy, but her eye and ear catch the smallest details. Last month, when the old Federal Security Agency was officially christened the Department of Health. Education and Welfare and she was sworn in as Secretary, Oveta went immediately to a White House telephone to call her office. She noted with satisfaction that the operator promptly chirped "Health, Education and Welfare" instead of "Federal Security Agency."