A ‘Hello Girl’ recognized
On Friday, May 3, World War I U.S. Army Signal Corps veteran and “Hello Girl” Marie Edmee LeRoux will make history again. When buried almost 80 years ago in an unmarked grave, she and the other “Hello Girls” were not yet recognized as veterans by the U.S. government. To acknowledge this overdue recognition, several veterans organizations have collaborated to host a dedication ceremony with full military honors at Fort Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Md. The ceremony is open to the public and media; parking is available.
During World War I, women volunteered to serve in the Signal Corps, giving the American Expeditionary Forces an operational advantage to share information on the battlefields throughout Europe. The unit connected over 26 million calls from March 1918 to January 1920, including during the Paris Peace Conference of 1919. But due to U.S. Title 10 laws of the time, they were not acknowledged as part of the Army at the war’s end, even though they had served in uniform and mobilized overseas. Veteran status and benefits were not granted to the group until 1977.
The U.S. World War I Centennial Commission, VA, the Military Women’s Memorial and the Doughboy Foundation collaborated on the headstone recognition ceremony. “It is an honor to pay our respects to Marie Edmee LeRoux,” said WWI Centennial Commission Executive Director Dan Dayton. “We hope that soon there will be another honor for her as well; the commission is advocating that Congress honor all ‘Hello Girls,’ America's first women soldiers, with a Congressional Gold Medal.” (The American Legion also supports this initiative via Resolution 110).
“This collaboration has truly been a heartwarming experience,” added National Cemetery Administration representative James Theres.
LeRoux was born in Montreal on Feb. 19, 1895. She served in the Signal Corps as a bilingual telephone operator. She sailed overseas on June 18, 1918, with Unit #4 and was honorably discharged on June 6, 1919. After the war, LeRoux stayed in Paris to continue music studies. She returned to the United States in December 1941, died on Jan. 9, 1945, and was buried at Fort Lincoln – receiving no VA headstone because she did not have veteran status.
The dedication ceremony's confirmed participants include LeRoux's granddaughter, representatives from the embassies of Canada and France who will lay a wreath at the headstone, and representatives of several military honor organizations. Speakers at the ceremony, which will begin at 11 a.m. EDT, will include Dayton; VA Chief of Staff Kimberly M. Jackson; and Anthony C. Woods, secretary of the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs. Phyllis Wilson, president of the Military Women’s Memorial, will emcee.
“I am ecstatic all of these organizations are honoring my grandmother,” said Catherine Bourgin. “It all happened so quickly. After her being in an unmarked grave for 79 years, I was able to work with the National Cemetery Administration to get an official marker for (her) grave.”
The event program also includes a brass quintet from the Doughboy Foundation that will play World War I musical selections. The Maryland National Guard Honor Guard will provide burial honors, and a bugler will sound Taps in a replica “Hello Girls” uniform. Rev. Anne Weatherholt of Epiphany Episcopal Church, the only known World War I chapel in the United States, will give the invocation and benediction.