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Moreover, Oveta presented Will Hobby with two children. (William Pettus Jr., now 21, a student at Rice Institute and a part-time reporter on the Post, and Jessica, 17—named for Hobby's good friend Jesse Jones—a student in Miss Hewitt's Classes in Manhattan.) The old governor was inclined to spoil his children, but Oveta was not. She taught them everything from horsemanship to management of their allowances, ran the range from Bill's Boy Scout merit badges to Jessica's romantic confidences.When Jessica bought a strapless evening gown to wear to the Eisenhower inaugural ball, her mother ruled that it was much too daring. But instead of scolding, or returning the dress, she bought a stole which properly covered Jessica's shoulders.
A Thorough Housecleaning. On the Post, Oveta progressed rapidly from book reviewer (good judgment, indifferent writing) to editorial writer (same). Then, when Hobby bought the Post from Jesse Jones (who got it from Sterling during the Depression), Oveta turned to the business side. Ruthlessly and effectively she reorganized the advertising and circulation departments from top to bottom. She moved to the newspaper's radio station, KPRC, and upended that, too. Her interest in politics, meanwhile, had never waned, and more & more her contralto became a familiar and influential voice at Texas conventions and political meetings.
With the coming of World War II, Oveta took a consultant's job as head of the War Department's new Women's Interest section. General Marshall, who knows a commander when he sees one, appointed her to organize and direct the Women's Auxiliary Army Corps, a crypto-military appendix of the Army. In July 1943, Oveta got the WAAC changed to WAC, an integral and openly acknowledged part of the Army's Active Reserve. The commanding officer: Colonel Oveta Hobby.
Khaki, Not Pink. Colonel Hobby's job was completely new in U.S. military history. There were no precedents, only makeshift regulations. Writing the rules as she went along, Oveta established and gradually built up the Corps. She had all the usual headaches of male commanders, and many that were unique: special diets (the girls got too fat on the standard quartermaster menus), the prescribed 30-in. marching pace (WACs had a hard time maintaining it), and pink underthings flapping on barracks clotheslines (Oveta ordered khaki underwear for the WAC, though the girls didn't like it).
Her causes were legion—but she kept her wit about her. "Give me my sword!" was her standard password when she left her Pentagon office. When she learned that women were going to be dishonorably discharged for "Pregnancy without Permission" (i.e., out of wedlock), she got after the generals, reasoned that male soldiers who fathered illegitimate children should, in all fairness, get the same treatment, suffer the same loss of rights and pay. The regulations were changed, and P.W.O.P. cases were given medical treatment and honorable discharges.