Lou Henry Hoover

Lou Henry grew up on the California frontier and became Stanford's first female geology graduate, where she met Herbert Hoover in 1899. They married and moved to China, surviving the Boxer Rebellion's Battle of Tientsin in 1900, then settled in London where she raised two sons and hosted between global travels. During World War I she ran refugee relief efforts, and when Herbert became Food and Drug Administrator in 1917, she campaigned for food conservation. As first lady from 1929, she invited Jessie De Priest to tea - a gesture read as support for civil rights that sparked backlash - refused press interviews but delivered regular radio addresses, refurbished the White House, and built Rapidan Camp as a presidential retreat. She funneled private charity to struggling families throughout the Depression without telling anyone, believing publicity around generosity was vulgar, but the secrecy left her looking indifferent as her husband's reputation collapsed. After his 1932 defeat she blamed dishonest press and dirty campaigning, opposed Roosevelt bitterly, and returned to humanitarian work during World War II until a heart attack killed her in January 1944.