The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1928-05-24
BY ALLENE SUMNER


WASHINGTON, May "a
w The breakfast of Herbert
Hoover always consists of fresh
strawberries with powdered sugar
and Mrs. Hoover.
This does not mean that the
Secretary of Commerce has can
nibalistic tendencies. 1t merely
means that his day starts all
wrong without both strawberries
and THE Madame" as he calls
Mrs. Herbert Hoover, in the bosom
of the CHEEKY Hoover home.
What's more, Mrs. Hoover Just
as unabashedly declares that her
days all wrong, too, if she doesn't
have Herbert for breakfast. This
despite the fact that Hoover
breakfasts are famous in official
Washington for their heartiness.
There are always the straw
berries when humanity possible,
big platters of waff.es or hot
cakes with strip. sausage or bacon
and eggs, buttered toast and
coffee.
The Hoovers at home are jo-
vial, CHEEKY, informal, "folksy."
If there's time before she drives
with Daddy down to the De-
partment of Commerce Bldg,
Mrs. Hoover will show him her
latest baby sacque or bootees,
knitted for baby Peggy Ann, 2,
whom her grandmother pro-
nounces "the very image of her
Grandfather Hoover"
Peggy Ann and her senior
brother, Herbert the Third. 8, are
the children of Herbert Hoover,
Jr., who lives in Cambridge.
n
THERE are those who will tell
l. you that Mrs. Hoover is high
brow"
They are awed by her college
degree from Stanford, her author
ship of a reconcile work on mining
her affiliation with this organiza-
ton and that.
But the picture of Mrs. Hoover
the "highbrow," has been much
more painted than that of Mrs
Hoover, the sweet-faced, gray
haired woman in the 50's.s who
knits whenever she sits down for a
moment and who has a dozen knit
ting bags scattered over the lovely
red brick house on S street.
She is as proud of hC Italian
cutwork luncheon set, with the
Capitol and Lincoln Memorial de-
sign, as Of her authorship, and likes
better than to get into a
jersey suit Of a
and go out with the secre-
tary and any available children for
a picnic with old coffee pot AMI
skillet.
The Hoover table is famous for
plenty of good, wholesome food,
but no spun sugar doo-dads."
n
TNHE Hoover home is that rare
i combination, a honey pal
ace-a livable rich mans house.
The green room with Topped
back green taffeta curtains, pink
freesiaS in a blue bowl, white pan
eled walls. was a haven for books
hundreds of them-first editions
in time-seasoned history, every
thing.
There is no home without a
garden" according to Mrs. Hoo
yer, who believes that homes
happy ones-are the most impor-
tant things in the world.
1T is the right of every child
to have a happy home" is one of
her few creeds which Mrs. Hoo
yer will crystalline in words.
Every wife's first job is her
home" she says further, intimat-
ing that no home can contain two
fully developed individuals and
that, when necessary, the wife
should submerge herself to make
"a background" for her husband.
q It q
MFRS. HOOVER is of medium
1VI height, gray-haired, with that
striking combination of blue eyes
and jet-black eyebrows. Her skin
is pink and white.
Her clothes are modish, but
simple. She seems to prefer line
to fuss and frills. She never goes
to beauty parlor, putting her
own water wave in her pretty
hair, and not even letting her
maid fuss" with her very much.
She's not "fat" at all, but she
looks at her slim young secreta-
ries ruefully and says, 81 was just