WWI veteran Grace Banker acknowledged at Green-Wood Cemetery

GREENWOOD HEIGHTS — Green-Wood Cemetery served as the backdrop on the afternoon of Saturday, Oct. 26, to grant U.S. Army signal corp. operator Grace Banker her rightful place in the history books.

Banker led America’s first women soldiers overseas in March 1918 during the First World War.

70 bilingual women, known as the “Hello Girls,” operated switchboards under battlefield conditions and provided vital communications between the American Expeditionary Forces and the French military, including front-line combat support.

Banker’s remarkable legacy was honored in collaboration with the United War Veterans Council and Grace Bankers family with the unveiling of a bronze plaque and Army Veteran medallion at her gravesite.

The event included a procession that started near Green-Wood’s Main Arch and made its way to Banker’s grave, led by an Armed Forces color guard.

There are more than two million women veterans in the United States, making up approximately 10 % of the overall veteran population. However, women were first granted Veterans’ rights in 1977, six decades after World War I and 17 years after Banker’s death in 1960. At the time of her burial, she received neither military honors nor a marker denoting her service to her nation.

Read the entire article on the Brooklyn Daily Eagle website.

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