Arts patron and philanthropist Ima Hogg was born in Mineola, Texas, in 1882.
Her parents were Sarah Ann Stinson and James Stephen Hogg — who became the attorney general of Texas in the late 1880s, then the first native-born governor of Texas in the early 1890s.
Ima’s birth occurred a couple of years after the death of Jim’s older brother, lawyer and writer Thomas Elisha Hogg. Tom had become Jim’s legal guardian (and father figure) in the mid-1860s.
In honor of his late brother, Jim Hogg decided to call his baby girl Ima, which was a name Tom had used for a female character in his Civil War poem The Fate of Marvin (1873). Here’s an excerpt:
A Southern girl, whose winsome grace
And kindly, gentle mien betrayed
A heart more beauteous than her face.
Ah! she was fair: the Southern skies
were typed in Ima’s heavenly eyes; …
(Notably, the poem featured two female characters. The second was Ima’s sister, Lelia.)
Ima Hogg, who had no middle name, later recalled: “Grandfather Stinson lived fifteen miles from Mineola and news traveled slowly. When he learned of his granddaughter’s name he came trotting to town as fast as he could to protest, but it was too late. The christening had taken place and Ima I was to remain.”
Throughout her life, Ima Hogg put a great deal of effort into downplaying her name. She had a “distinctive signature that rendered the first part [of her name] almost illegible,” for instance, and she used either “Miss Hogg” or “I. Hogg” on her personal stationery. Among acquaintances, she was known simply as “Miss Ima.”
In her early 90s, Miss Ima remarked to a friend, “You know, if I had been born in Scotland, my name would probably have been Imogene.”
Not long afterward, she began to call herself Imogene. The whimsical name change was a well-kept secret. Even some of the people closest to her never knew it, but her last passport was issued to Ima Imogene Hogg.
Ima Hogg passed away in 1975. Contrary to persistent rumors, she never had a sister named “Ura.” In fact, she never had any sisters at all — just three brothers: William Clifford, Michael Stephen, and Thomas Elisha. (William’s middle name honored his mother’s half-sister Clifford, who went by “Cliffie.”)
Sources:
- Ima Hogg – East Texas History
- Thomas Elisha Hogg (1842–1880) – Texas State Historical Association
- Bernhard, Virginia. Ima Hogg: The Governor’s Daughter. 2nd ed. St. James, New York: Brandywine Press, 1996.
- Pryor, William Lee. “‘The Fate of Marvin’: An Epic Poem of the Civil War by a Texas Soldier.” Texas Quarterly, vol. XX, no. 2, 1977, pp. 7-12.
- Birmingham, Stephen. The Grandes Dames. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Image: Adapted from Ima Hogg
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