William Pettus Hobby, born near Moscow, was the son of Eudora Adeline Pettus and Edwin E. Hobby, a state senator and judge. At age 17 he joined the staff of the Houston Post and rose to managing editor at 23, then became publisher of the Beaumont Enterprise in 1907. Texas voters elected him Lieutenant Governor in 1914 and 1916, and he became Governor after the impeachment of James E. Ferguson in 1917. In 1918 he was elected to his own full term, serving from 1919 to 1921. His accomplishments as Governor included initiating a free schoolbook program, a compulsory school attendance law, a state government budget system, and state drought relief, and his leadership was vital to Texas' participation in World War I and to the effecting of woman's suffrage in the state and nation. In 1924 he served on the first board of regents of Texas Technological College, and from that year until his death in 1964 he was president of the Houston Post. In 1931 he married Oveta Culp, parliamentarian of the Texas House and daughter of Elizabeth Hoover and former state representative Ike W. Culp. For the next quarter century, William and Oveta shared editorial administration of the Post, except during four years of World War II when she served as commander of the Women's Army Corps of the United States military forces, and from 1953 to 1955 when she served in President Dwight D. Eisenhower's administration as the first Secretary of the Housing, Education and Welfare Department. William and Oveta had two children, William Pettus, Jr. and Jessica.