Isabel Adbou Hatchett was organizer and the first president of the Miners Co-Ed Association, Women’s Division. The group met at what later became Cathedral High School.
Her father was born in west Syria and opened a produce store in 1915. Hatchett was the first woman to graduate from the TWC’s (now the University of Texas at El Paso, UTEP) Business Administration School in 1933.
Hatchett was a member of the College Players, she performed “Salome, the dance of the Seven Veils.” She also played Old Meg in “Witch of the Tower”, which was a weekly radio program. She composed UTEP’s first newspaper and their yearbook. She was head of the college pep squad named All Miners Girls.
Hatchett served as secretary of the of the ex-student association and edited a quarterly newsletter. She chaired the El Paso Women’s Department of Commerce and served as president of the El Paso American Association of American Women. She help raised money for a college scholarship fund, was the area leader for United Way and took part in the first Texas Western College alumni fundraiser.
She married Calvin, who was a manager of a warehouse storage company. She was nicknamed Hurricane Isabel for her civic campaigns.
Joseph Longo
EPHS Curator
