Phoebe A. Hearst
American Philanthropist
1842 – 1919 A.D.

Phoebe Apperson Hearst, an American philanthropist, mother of William Randolph Hearst. She was for a time a teacher, and in 1861 married Senator George F. Hearst of California. In San Francisco she established kindergarten classes for the children of the poor, and a manual training school, and organized a number of girls’ clubs.

At Lead, South Dakota, and at Anaconda, Montana, she built and first maintained public libraries, and in Washington, D.C. she built the National Cathedral School for Girls at a cost of $250,000. Among her other donations are those to the University of California, where she erected and equipped the mining building as a memorial to her husband.

The charities of Mrs. Hearst were wide-spread, and hundreds of needy individuals and institutions annually were in receipt of her bounty at the Christmas season.

Her last years were spent in Pleasanton, CA, near San Francisco. During her life she distributed in chrity, philanthropies, education and public works about twenty million dollars.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.