‘Hello Girl’ from Maryland wins a medal for her World War I service

Published: 28 January 2025

By Robert Stewart
via The Star Democrat newspaper (MD) website

Bourgin holding picture

Catherine Bourgin holds up a picture of a Hello Girl. Bourgin has a letter from 1936 that indicates her grandmother was the one posing for the picture.

Marie Edmee LeRoux has been buried at the Fort Lincoln Cemetery here for 79 years, but she may soon win a gold medal for her service in World War I.

LeRoux was one of 223 bilingual women deployed to France as telephone operators, often under combat conditions, as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. They were the country’s first women soldiers, popularly known as the “Hello Girls.”

They’ve been long overlooked for their service. But now the U.S. Congress has approved a special congressional gold medal as part of the National Defense Authorization Act for the coming year. The measure now goes to President Joe Biden for consideration. (Editor’s note: the NDAA was signed by President Biden on December 24, 2024.)

“It’s a story that’s been forgotten and needs to be told,” LeRoux’s granddaughter, Catherine Bourgin of McLean, Va., said. “With the passage of the Congressional gold medal, that’s what I want.”

Women like LeRoux braved German submarines on the transport to the war front and disease and bombardment to serve in the signal corps under the American Expeditionary Forces. Their service helped set a precedent for women’s service in the U.S. military and influenced support for the 19th amendment, guaranteeing women the right to vote.

Gen. John Pershing requested that bilingual women operators deploy to France. They were more skilled and experienced at operating the new telephone systems of the time, and the AEF needed bilingual people to communicate with the French forces.

LeRoux had those skills. She was born in Montreal and grew up speaking French and English before moving to the U.S. at age 10, according to Bourgin. She was a passionate singer but, according to Bourgin, LeRoux abandoned her music career to answer the call.

LeRoux traveled to France in 1918, operating the switchboards that connected military commanders with the front lines and their French counterparts. She stayed in France after the war to restart her music studies. When war threatened France again in 1939, LeRoux fled the country with her 4-year-old daughter in tow. She eventually came to live near family in Prince George’s County.

She passed away in 1945 and was interred in an unmarked grave here, according to her granddaughter. She did not receive a military headstone because she was not considered a veteran.

Many women who served in the U.S. Army signal corps found out they weren’t considered “soldiers” when they applied for benefits after the war. They received no veteran medical care and no federally funded rehabilitation training.

This was only remedied in 1977 when Congress acknowledged them as veterans, following decades of petitioning by Hello Girls like Merle Egan Anderson. Most had already passed away by then.

While Bourgin was researching her grandmother’s history, she discovered LeRoux was a member of the Hello Girls. She also learned that a congressional commission had recommended these female veterans receive a Congressional Gold Medal collectively.

So, in 2023, Bourgin began working with others to help her grandmother and the other Hello Girls get that medal.

Read the entire article on The Democrat Star website.
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