Margaret Gardner Hoey

Margaret Elizabeth "Bessie" Hoey ( Gardner; January 21, 1875 – February 13, 1942) was an American civic leader and political hostess who served as the First Lady of North Carolina from 1937 to 1941. She was part of the "Shelby Dynasty" and is the only North Carolinian first lady to be the wife of one governor, Clyde R. Hoey, and the sister of another governor, Oliver Max Gardner. While serving as first lady, Hoey focused on issues related to women's roles and children's welfare, advocated for highway beautification across the state, and established a green house for exotic plants at the state penitentiary.

She was known to be an eloquent and passionate orator, giving speeches across the state. Prior to serving as first lady, she acted as a political hostess while her husband served in the North Carolina General Assembly and the U.S. House of Representatives.

She was involved in various religious, civic, and lineage organizations including the Daughters of the American Revolution and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and was a supporter of local amateur dramatic arts.

Early life and family Hoey was born Margaret Elizabeth Gardner in Shelby, North Carolina, on January 21, 1875, to Oliver Perry Gardner and his second wife, Margaret Young Gardner.

After her mother's death when she was sixteen years old, Hoey helped her father raise her younger brothers and send them to school. She was the sister of Governor Oliver Max Gardner. Her brother's wife, Fay Webb-Gardner, was their distant cousin through the Blanton line.

She was educated at Shelby Female College.

Her husband was elected as the Governor of North Carolina in 1936, and took office on January 7, 1937. She and her family moved to the North Carolina Executive Mansion in Raleigh.

In 1940 she and her husband attended a launching ceremony for the USS North Carolina (BB-55) at the New York Navy Yard in Brooklyn where her daughter was serving as the ship's sponsor.

Hoey was active in civic, social, artistic, and religious organizations including the Daughters of the American Revolution, the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Twentieth Century Book Players. Hoey taught Sunday school classes at her Methodist church, often having more than sixty people in attendance. Her husband, who outlived her, wore a red rose or carnation in his lapel daily to honor her. Upon his death, the Bess Gardner Hoey Memorial Fund was established as a trust for charitable, educational, and religious purposes.