Ima Hogg: Much More than Just a Quirky Name (Mar 23, 2025)
by Scott Sosebee
Texas has been blessed with a number of notable women who have made a mark on the state and its history. They did so despite long odds and multiple obstacles that restricted their public lives, their political voice, and their economic power. While it is a cliché, the old folk saying, “Texas is heaven for men and dogs, but it is hell for women and horses,” has—like many platitudes—a grain of truth. Women have faced obstacles through the years—political, social, cultural, economic—but one thing remained consistent: they never stopped working to advance their rights and make Texas, and the United States, a better place.
Texas woman who certainly fits that description was prominent philanthropist and icon, Ima Hogg. And I suppose we should get this out of the way early: no, despite what generations of Texas schoolchildren have delighted in saying, she did not have a sister named “Ura.” Ima was the daughter of Texas governor James Hogg—the first native-born Texan to serve in that office—and Sarah Stinson Hogg. Born in Mineola in 1882, Ima was named for the heroine of a poem written by her uncle Thomas Elisha. She was only eight years old when her father became governor, and the family moved to Austin. Her father left the governor’s office in 1895 after the traditional two terms, but the family remained in Austin. Ima’s mother died just a few months after James Hogg left office, and thus Ima attended boarding school at the Coronal Institute in San Marcos and went to the University of Texas in 1899.
Music had been Ima’s first love, and she left Texas for New York in 1901 to study piano, but once again ,family illness changed her direction. James Hogg fell gravely ill in 1905, and Ima returned to Texas to care for him. When James Hogg died in 1906, Ima made an extended trip to Europe. She studied music in Berlin and Vienna, and then in 1909, came back to Texas and settled in Houston. She began to give private piano lessons, but she also helped to found the Houston Symphony Orchestra in 1913. She served as president of the Houston Symphony Society in 1917 but could not complete her term because she suffered what was then called a “nervous breakdown,” and what we now know was likely a bout of depression, which was a common malady in the family. Ima went to Philadelphia to recover and returned to Houston in 1923. However, the most prominent chapter of her life was just beginning.
The Hogg family had been financially comfortable for all of Ima’s life; the family owned land in East Texas and then had bought another extensive tract in southeast Texas near West Columbia. It was the West Columbia acreage that would produce a handsome fortune when oil was discovered there in 1919. Ima Hogg returned to Texas a wealthy woman and proceeded to launch one of the most generous philanthropic careers the state has ever seen. The Hogg family had long been interested in somehow helping to establish greater access to mental health facilities for those who could not afford them, and all the Hogg children—Ima and brothers Will and Tom, all had a great sense of public responsibility. That led Ima to found first the Houston Guild Guidance Center, which provided counseling and therapy services for mentally challenged children and financial support for their families during treatment. When Will Hogg tragically died in 1930 while traveling in Europe with Ima, she carried out Will’s wishes to establish the Hogg Foundation for Mental Health, devoting the majority of Will’s $2.5 million estate to the endeavor.
Ima Hogg came from a political family, so she naturally had a passion for the state’s politics. Besides advocating for mental health, Ima Hogg had a devotion to Texas’ public school teachers. She was elected to Houston’s school board in 1943 and worked tirelessly to have teachers receive equal pay regardless of their gender. She also pressed for and provided funding for arts programs in all of Houston’s public schools. Her interest in public art continued when she opened up her extensive art collection to the public as the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, which she housed in Bayou Bend, the mansion she and her brothers had built in the River Oaks neighborhood. She also became very prominent in historical preservation and would serve on the Texas State Historical Survey Committee—an entity that would eventually become the Texas Historical Commission—for four years in the 1950s.
The University of Texas System made Hogg the first recipient of the Santa Rita Award in 1968, which recognizes contributions to the University and higher education in general. She, Oveta Culp Hobby, and Lady Bird Johnson became the first three women members of the Academy of Texas in 1969, which honors people who “enrich, enlarge, and enlighten” knowledge in any field. She also continued to make philanthropic gifts to a number of Houston and Texas arts and music programs for the rest of her life through the Ima Hogg Foundation, which she established in 1964.
Ima Hogg lived a long, prolific, and active life. At the age of 93, she made a 1975 trip to England. While there, she was involved in a traffic accident and died from the complications. At her funeral at Bayou Bend, Governor Dolph Briscoe praised her as a “Texas icon, and perhaps the greatest philanthropist this state has ever seen. She loved Texas, and it loved her back.” She was buried in the family plot in Austin’s Oakwood Cemetery. The Ima Hogg Foundation continues to be one of the leading contributors to the arts in the nation. So, the next time you hear someone use “Ima Hogg” as a joke, remind them that she was much more than a punch line.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee is a Professor of History at Stephen F. Austin State University and the Executive Director of the Association. He can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.