Hearst, Phoebe Apperson (1842-1919), was an American philanthropist and educator. She and Alice J. M. Birney established the National Congress of Mothers in 1897. In 1925, it became the National Congress of Parents and Teachers, the national organization of local parent-teacher associations (PTA’s). Hearst was a supporter of early childhood education and educational opportunities for women. She was also the first woman regent of the University of California system.
Hearst was an early supporter of the kindergarten movement in the United States. In 1883, she founded one of the country’s first free kindergartens, in San Francisco. In 1893, she helped set up the Columbia Free Kindergarten Association in Washington, D.C., Hearst also funded scholarships for female students at the University of California at Berkeley.
Phoebe Apperson was born on Dec. 3, 1842, on a farm near St. Clair, Missouri. She taught school in St. James, Missouri, until 1862, when she married George Hearst, a miner who became a millionaire. Their son was the newspaper publisher William Randolph Hearst. She died on April 13, 1919.
See also Birney, Alice J. M. ; National Congress of Parents and Teachers .
