The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 101, July 1997 - April, 1998 Page: 461

For All Houston's Children: Ima Hogg and
the Board of Education, 1943-1949
KATE S. KIRKLAND*
H OUSTON NEWSPAPERS BOMBARDED THEIR READERS ON APRIL 5, 1943,
with patriotic announcements of Allied successes on Atlantic and
Pacific fronts: "133 Flying Forts Smash Paris Factories" boomed the
Houston Post;, "loo U.S. Bombers Wreck 35 Ships in Attack on Naples,"
blared the Houston Press; "12 Jap Ships Hit Without U.S. Loss," boasted
the Houston Chronicle.' At 1:oo P.M. on that Monday of military action, a
small, elegantly dressed woman entered the meeting room of the
Houston Independent School District's Board of Education at Sam
Houston High School and was introduced as the newly elected represen-
tative for Position 3. Ima Hogg, daughter of Texas reform governor
James Stephen Hogg and sister of Texas legislator Mike Hogg, thus
began her first and only term of elected public office at the age of 61.'
* Kate S. Kirkland has served as a docent at the Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, Museum of
Fine Arts, Houston, since 1971 and is currently enrolled in the graduate program of the
Department of History at Rice University. She wishes to thank Veronica Mabasa and her col-
leagues at the Board Services Department, Houston Independent School District; Nancy
Turbeyville, Director of Development for the Depelchin Children's Center; and Susan Kodner
Berdahl and Ginny Garrett of the Houston Symphony Society for their kind assistance.
iFront page headlines in the Houston Post, Houston Press, Houston Chronicle. The Informer,
Houston's premier black newspaper, was published only on Saturdays.
2 James Stephen Hogg served as the first Texas-born governor from 1891 to 1895. Mike Hogg
ran in a special election to represent Harris County in the state legislature, ran again in 1928,
and retired at the end of his term in 1931. See Marguerite Johnston, Houston The Unknown City,
r836-1946 (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1994), 257. Robert C. Cotner, James
Stephen Hogg: A Biography (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1959); Hubert Roussel, The Houston
Symphony Orchestra, 1913-197 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1972); and Virginia Bernhard,
Ima Hogg Governor's Daughter ([Austin]: Texas Monthly Press, 1984) cover Ima Hogg's family his-
tory and childhood. Cotner's flattering biography makes excellent use of family papers that were
then sealed from the public, but it also reflects his daughter's tendency to attribute qualities she
admired to the father she revered An extensive collection of Hogg family papers is now available
to the public at the Center for American History, University of Texas, Austin. The four Hogg
children were William Clifford (January 31, 1875-September 12, 1930), Ima (July 1o,
1882-August 19, 1975), Michael (October 28, 1885-1941), and Thomas Elisha (August lo,
1887-March 9, 1949). James Stephen was born at "Mountain Home" in 1851 and died in 1906
after suffering injuries in a railroad accident. Ima Hogg's mother, Sarah Ann Stinson, was born
in 1854 and died of tuberculosis on September 20, 1895.