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Admirably equipped to preside at the White House, Lou Henry Hoover brought to it long experience as wife of a man eminent in public affairs at home and abroad. She had shared his interests since they met in a geology lab at Stanford University. She was a freshman, he a senior, and he was fascinated, as he declared later, "by her whimsical mind, her blue eyes and a broad grinnish smile."

She grew up in Iowa, until, when she was 10 years old, her father, Charles D. Henry, decided that the climate of southern California would favor the health of his wife, Florence. The family moved to Whittier, California, later the childhood home of President Richard Nixon.

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. After studying at two normal schools in California, and obtaining a teaching certificate, she entered Stanford in 1894--"slim and supple as a reed," a classmate recalled, with a "wealth of brown hair"--and completed her course (becoming the first woman in Stanford's geology department) before marrying Herbert Hoover in 1899.

The newlyweds left at once for China, where he won quick recognition as a mining engineer. His career took them about the globe-- Ceylon, Burma, SiberiaSiberia ( Russian: , common English transliterations: Sibir Sibir' is a vast region of Russia and northern Kazakhstan, constituting all of northern Asia, and extending eastward from the Ural Mountains to the Pacific Ocean, and southward from the Arctic Oc, AustraliaAustralia is the sixth-largest country in the world (geographically), the only one to occupy an entire continent, and the largest in the region of Australasia. Australia includes the island of Tasmania, which is an Australian State. Its neighbouring count, EgyptJumhuriyat Misr al-Arabiyah ( In Detail) Official language Arabic Capital Cairo Largest City Cairo President Hosni Mubarak Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif Area Total % water Ranked 29th 1,001,450 km² 0. 6% Population Total (2003) Density Ranked 15th 74,718,797, JapanJapan (, Nippon/Nihon literally "the origin of the sun") is a country in East Asia situated on a chain of islands east of the Asian continent on the western edge of the Pacific Ocean. The largest of these islands are, from north to south, Hokkaido , Honsh, and EuropeFor the band of the same name, see Europe (band . Europe is a continent forming the westermost part of the Eurasian supercontinent. Europe is bounded to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the west by the Atlantic Ocean, to the south by the Mediterranean Se--while her talent for homemaking eased their time in a dozen foreign lands. Lou and her husband collaborated on a translation from the Latin of a classic 16th century treatise on mining, Georgius Agricola's De Re Metallica. Two sons, Herbert and Allan, were born during this adventurous life, which made their father a youthful millionaire.

During World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of, while Hoover earned world fame administering emergency relief programs, she was often with him but spent some time with the boys in California. In 1919 she saw construction begin for a long-planned home in Palo Alto, CaliforniaPalo Alto is a city in Santa Clara County, in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. Palo Alto is located at the northern end of the Silicon Valley, and is home to Stanford University (which is technically located in an adjacent area — Stanford, C, which she helped design. In 1921, however, his appointment as United States Secretary of Commerce took the family to Washington. There she spent eight years busy with the social duties of a Cabinet wife and an active participation in the Girl Scout movement, including service as its president.

The Hoovers moved into the White House in 1929, and the First Lady welcomed visitors with poise and dignity throughout the administration. However, when the first day of 1933 dawned, Mr. and Mrs. Hoover were away on holiday. Their absence ended the New Year's Day tradition of the public being greeted personally by the President at a reception in the Executive Mansion.

Mrs. Hoover paid with her own money the cost of reproducing furniture owned by James Monroe for a period sitting room in the White House. She also restored Abraham Lincoln's study for her husband's use. She dressed handsomely; she "never fitted more perfectly into the White House picture than in her formal evening gown," remarked one secretary.

In 1933 they retired to Palo Alto, but maintained an apartment in New York. Mr. Hoover learned the full lavishness of his wife's charities only after her death there on January 7, 1944; she had helped the education, he said, "of a multitude of boys and girls." In retrospect he stated her ideal for the position she had held: "a symbol of everything wholesome in American life."

The Lou Henry and Herbert Hoover House in Palo Alto's foothills is now the official residence of the President of Stanford University. It stands not terribly far from the campus' Hoover Tower , home of the Hoover Institute, and is designated a National Historic Landmark.

Lou Henry Hoover was originally buried in Palo Alto, California, after her death from a heart attack, but upon her husband's death in 1964, she was re-interred in West Branch, Iowa.