Lou Henry Hoover

Lou Henry Hoover (March 29, 1874 – January 7, 1944) was the wife of President of the United States Herbert Hoover and served as First Lady from 1929 to 1933.

Marrying her engineer husband in 1899, she traveled widely with him, including to Shanghai, China, and became a cultivated scholar and linguist. A proficient Chinese speaker, she is the only First Lady to have spoken an Asian language. She oversaw construction of the presidential retreat at Rapidan Camp in Madison County, Virginia. She was the first First Lady to make regular nationwide radio broadcasts.

Early life and education

Lou Henry was born in Waterloo, Iowa, to banker Charles Delano Henry and Florence Ida Weed. Lou grew up something of a tomboy in Waterloo, as well as Whittier, California, and Monterey, California. Charles Henry took his daughter on camping trips in the hills—her greatest pleasures in her early teens. Lou became a fine horsewoman; she hunted, and preserved specimens with the skill of a taxidermist; she developed an enthusiasm for rocks, minerals, and mining.