Hearst, Phoebe Apperson, 1842-1919

Phoebe Elizabeth Apperson Hearst was born in St. Clair, Missouri, the daughter of Drucilla (Whitmire) and Randolph Walker Apperson. In 1860, businessman George Hearst met Phoebe when he returned to St. Clair to care for his dying mother. When they married on June 15, 1862, George Hearst was 41 years old, and Phoebe was 19. Soon after their marriage the Hearsts moved to San Francisco, California, where Phoebe gave birth to their only child, William Randolph Hearst. As a very successful miner who later became a U.S. senator, George often left Phoebe alone during his work.

Hearst was a major benefactor of the University of California, Berkeley, and its first woman regent, serving on the board from 1897 until her death. In 1896, in her first major act of museum philanthropy, she donated more than two hundred objects to the Penn Museum. In 1901, Phoebe Hearst founded the University of California Museum of Anthropology, later renamed the Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology in 1992.