Finding the Hello Girls: A Journey of Discovery and Connections

Finding (Auntie) Nemo

The seeds that led to my Hello Girls journey were first planted in the fall of 2011. As my son was leaving for college, he suggested in a humorous manner that it was now time for me to find a new “hobby”! I laughed at first, but soon realized that this was actually good advice. Much of my free time over the past 18 years had been spent in parenting activities, of which I had loved every moment; but now I would have more time to pursue other interests, and the first thing that came to mind was genealogy!

Melina Olive (Girard) Shaw in her WWI Uniform as a “Hello Girl” with the U.S. Army Signal Corps female telephone operators unit.

One person I was very interested in learning more about was my father’s aunt, Melina Olive (Girard) Shaw, whom I believed had lived an interesting and unconventional life. I knew her as “Auntie Nemo,” an elderly woman who lived in a cozy, three-season camp called the “Shaw Shack,” which was built on stilts and overlooked the Shawsheen River in Massachusetts, and who spent winters caring for even older wealthy women in their homes on Beacon Hill in Boston. I was aware, as well, of several tidbits of my great-aunt’s life story that made for intriguing conversations with cousins – for instance, her father had been a “horse and buggy doctor” in western Massachusetts in the 1870s and 1880s; she was orphaned by the age of 12; she was briefly married and divorced; she attended the Sorbonne in Paris; she worked for U.S. Congresswoman Edith Nourse Rogers; and when she died in 1980 at the age of 90, she was the first person to be buried in the newly opened Massachusetts National Cemetery on Cape Cod. Some of these stories were quickly confirmed through searching online genealogy sites, while others were more elusive.

But by far the most interesting story about Auntie Nemo was that she had served in the “Women’s Signal Corps” during World War I. Unfortunately, I never thought to ask her or anyone else for details about her service, and when I started my genealogy research in 2011, I was unable to find any information about the “Women’s Signal Corps” (a term I remembered from my childhood), so I moved on to other family lines; every so often, though, I would return to Auntie Nemo, but with no luck on her service until the fall of 2014.

Finding Ellouise Schoettler and The Hello Girls

I vividly recall spending a rainy Sunday afternoon at the Baker Library at Dartmouth, researching a different family line; after some time, I became uninspired by that project, and my thoughts turned to Auntie Nemo. Once again, I tried a Google search for the World War I Women’s Signal Corps. Still nothing came up, so I started plugging various versions of my great-aunt’s name into the search engine; and finally, “Melina Olive Shaw” resulted in several hits about a one-woman show called “The Hello Girls,” which had been performed the previous summer at the 2014 Capitol Fringe Festival in Washington, DC. The show profiled three of the 223 female, French-speaking telephone operators, nicknamed the “Hello Girls,” who were recruited by General Pershing to serve in the U.S. Army Signal Corps in France during World War I – Grace Banker of New Jersey, Merle Egan of Montana, and Olive Shaw of Massachusetts!

Although the show had already completed its run, I contacted the creator and performer, Ellouise Schoettler, and she filled in the details about the Hello Girls’ service and their 60-year fight for veteran’s recognition. This rang a vague bell for me, and then, after my mother passed away the following spring, I found several news clippings among her papers from 1979, when my great-aunt received her military discharge, and from 1980, when she died and was buried in the Massachusetts National Cemetery.

I then called Ellouise again, and we were both amazed that I had reached her at the exact moment she was attending an event at the National World War I Museum in Kansas City – and was standing in front of a display of my great-aunt’s uniform! Ellouise told me that since we had last spoken, a professor and author named Elizabeth Cobbs had written a book called The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers. I immediately ordered the book and, in the next few years, connected with Jim Theres through his “Hello Girls Documentary” Facebook page and was invited to a number of events, including a reception on Capitol Hill in 2019, where the Army Women’s Museum inducted the Hello Girls into their Hall of Fame. There I met several members of the Hello Girls team and learned about the campaign for the Congressional Gold Medal. I began writing to my Members of Congress and encouraged my family, friends and co-workers to do the same.

A few years later, on Veterans Day 2023, my son, who was living in DC, and I attended a ceremony at the National World War I Memorial, where we met several other members of the Hello Girls team. They invited me to join their small group of descendants and supporters, including the World War I Centennial Commission and various veterans groups, who were still lobbying Congress to secure support for the Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act – in what was now the fourth session of Congress in which the bill had been introduced!

As enthusiastic, but completely inexperienced, Congressional lobbyists, my fellow descendants, Carolyn Timbie and Catherine Bourgin, and I spent some time in a trial-and-error phase, as we and other members of our group met with Congressional staffers and shared the stories of our own Hello Girls family members. Although the staffers generally expressed interest in and empathy for the Hello Girls’ cause, too often these meetings did not result in a co-sponsorship of our bill. Why were these staffers and their bosses so hesitant, when almost anyone we spoke to outside of Congress exclaimed with puzzlement, “This should be easy! Who wouldn’t want to sign on after hearing these stories?!!”

It soon occurred to us that, although our personal stories were compelling, what really motivated the folks on Capitol Hill was hearing stories that related to their own states and districts, preferably relayed to them by their constituents. Aha!!! From that point on, we made a great effort to conduct research on the Hello Girls with connections to the particular states and districts of Members of Congress prior to our meetings. Another technique that worked well was to ask descendants to write to their senators and reps. By the time I started working with the team, all the Members of Congress from my home state of New Hampshire had co-sponsored the bill, but I immediately mobilized my “cousin network.” Although my great-aunt never had children of her own, she had 17 nieces and nephews, all of whom knew her quite well, and most of them now have adult children who are located around the country. For me, reuniting with family members from California, Colorado, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington has been one of the many joys of this project. My cousins were all very supportive of the campaign, asking their own extended families and friends to contact their reps and springing into action whenever I requested their help.

The “cousin network” gathers at the celebration of the passage of the Congressional Gold Medal legislation, at the Military Women’s Memorial in Arlington National Cemetery in 2025.

It was such an honor to be part of this team, and we were all thrilled that our efforts met with success in the final days of the 2023-2024 Congressional session, with Congress passing the legislation and President Biden signing it into law in December of 2024.

 Finding More Hello Girls & Their Descendants

Rather than marking the end of our Hello Girls advocacy, the passage of the Congressional Gold Medal Act simply marked “the end of the beginning” of our efforts to preserve the legacy of “America’s First Women Soldiers.” Through our organization, the Hello Girls Military Honors and Remembrance Project (M-HARP), a special program of the Doughboy Foundation, we have continued our research into the lives of these pioneering women, with the goals of educating the public, locating more descendants and family members, and ensuring that the final resting place of each Hello Girl recognizes her World War I service. While I am very proud that my great-aunt was buried with full military honors in a national cemetery, it saddens me to know that so many other Hello Girls died long before they were officially recognized as veterans; and therefore, most of their grave markers contain no mention of their military service. Righting this wrong through researching and connecting with descendants and cemeteries to obtain veterans markers has been a real motivator for me personally and for our M-HARP team.

Although the U.S. Army Signal Corps Telephone Operators Unit represented a very small fraction of the millions of soldiers who served in World War I, their ability to efficiently utilize the latest switchboard technology, as well as their specialized language skills, to rapidly interpret and communicate critical information made a difference and contributed to the Allies’ victory. They were America’s first women soldiers, their service was important, and they deserve to be remembered!

Over the past two years, we have connected with over 50 Hello Girls descendants, some of whom knew their Hello Girl family member and others who were hearing the story for the first time. Whenever we connect with new descendants, we fill them in on any research and discoveries we have made about their Hello Girl and invite them to join our online group and share any family photos and stories with our community of Hello Girls family and friends. We also offer our assistance in requesting a VA marker for their family member if they do not yet have one. To date, nearly 30 Hello Girls descendants have officially joined our group, and several others have expressed interest in keeping informed and perhaps joining us at the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington, DC (expected to take place in 2027). What a treat it has been to share this amazing part of our common history with so many new friends! Our goal is to have a descendant for each Hello Girl present when the medal is unveiled!

The following paragraphs introduce a few of the Hello Girls we have researched and connections we have made with their descendants and hopefully provide a tiny window into the lives of these brave, patriotic and talented young women who, in 1918, were eager to do their part to help win the war. While each story is unique, our research into many of their lives – before, during and after the war – has revealed a common sense of curiosity, spirit of adventure and commitment to lifelong community service.

Helen Bixby in uniform

Helen Bixby was one of the first Hello Girls I researched back in 2024, when we were lobbying a Senator from Indiana. Born and raised in Indianapolis, at age 16 she traveled abroad with her mother and spent three years studying and performing ballet and opera in Italy, France, Switzerland and England. In July 1918, Helen married John Moore, an engineer from Chicago, shortly before shipping out to France with the Sixth Group of Hello Girls. She served in Tours and at General Pershing’s headquarters in Paris. After the war, Helen and John had two children and lived in Chicago, Milwaukee and Miami. In 1936, Helen joined the Citizens Military Training Camps, serving as hostess at Fort Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, and later in Seoul as assistant command hostess of Korea under the Army Hostess Corps. She received her honorable discharge in 1979 and died in 1982 at the age of 88.

In February 2025, after locating Helen Bixby Moore on an Ancestry.com family tree, I reached out to her family and connected with Holly Barbo, one of Helen’s granddaughters. Holly had known Helen and relayed several wonderful stories about “Grandma Chérie.” Holly also shared with us a lovely book that Helen had written for her children when they were young, but had never published. Holly, who is a writer, teamed up with her cousin, an artist, and for the first time, Jackie Boy and the Sea Folk by Helen Bixby Moore was published in 2024!

Cover of Jackie Boy and the Sea Folk by Helen Bixby Moore

After recently discussing our M-HARP activities with Holly, we contacted her grandmother’s cemetery in Indiana to find out if Helen has a VA grave marker, as it was not clear from her Find-a-Grave site. The cemetery was able to confirm that, indeed, Helen’s marker does reflect her World War I service, and the cemetery has also added her to their list of notable burials!

Minnie Hermine Goldman is another fascinating Hello Girl. Born in Romania, she immigrated to the U.S. as a child and grew up in Chicago. She spoke fluent French and German, and in 1917, the Chicago Tribune reported that she was a graduate of the Northwestern Law School and had passed the bar examination.

October 8, 1917, Chicago Tribune article about Minnie Hermine Goldman.

Minnie swore the Army oath in April 1918 and deployed to France with the Sixth Group of operators, serving in Chaumont, Toul and Paris and reportedly receiving two citations for bravery under fire. After the war, she returned to Chicago, practiced law and traveled to Europe at least twice in the next few years. In 1922, the Chicago Tribune reported that Minnie had been elected junior vice commander of Chicago Loop Post No. 144 and was the first Chicago woman to be elected officer of an American Legion post.

Minnie Hermine Goldman 1922 American Legion article.

Minnie married Joseph Selig, a printer, in the mid-1920s. Their daughter Helen was born in 1928, and by 1940, they were living in San Diego. In 1951, the Pasadena Independent reported that “Minnie Goldman Selig, attorney, world traveler and authority on immigration problems,” would be speaking at the April meeting of the local chapter of the Women’s American Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training (ORT). The article noted, “Mrs. Selig spent six months in South America several years ago, studying problems of immigration and of the immigrants after they reached their new South American homes.” Minnie Goldman Selig died in Spain in 1971 and was buried in Palma de Mallorca. Although she did not live to receive her veteran’s recognition, she certainly lived a very interesting and eventful life.

It was a pleasure to connect through Ancestry with Minnie’s grandniece last fall and to hear some of her intriguing family stories. She and her daughter have joined our descendants group!

Georgette Julia Boehrer – M-HARP members often meet with high school and community theatre groups who will be performing “The Hello Girls: A New American Musical” in theatres around the country. The actors and directors are very interested in hearing the stories of our Hello Girl grandmothers and great-aunts, as well as learning about some of the Hello Girls on which the characters are based. In anticipation of these meetings, we also do some quick research on the Hello Girls with ties to the area; and it has been particularly meaningful for some of the high school students to learn about these local connections.

Georgette Boehrer in uniform.

In preparing for a meeting with a high school theatre group in Pennsylvania this past February, I chose a few Pennsylvania Hello Girls to research, including Georgette Julia Boehrer, who was born in New York City in 1900. Georgette’s parents, both natives of Alsace, had emigrated from France in the 1880’s. By 1918, both of her parents had died, and Georgette was living at a YWCA in Reading, Pennsylvania, and working as a telephone operator at a department store. She volunteered for Signal Corps service and deployed to France in June 1918, with the Fourth Group of Hello Girls. After the war, she moved to New York, where she worked as an operator for an advertising firm and married Lucien Bonnafoux. Their only child, Lucien George, was born in 1942; but by 1950, Georgette was divorced and living in California with her son. She was active in the PTA and in local community theatre, as well as in local politics, serving as a judge for school district elections. Georgette Boehrer Bonnafoux died in San Diego on May 13, 1978, just a year before she would have received her veteran’s recognition.

In trying to locate Georgette’s descendants, I learned that her son Lucien, a military veteran himself, unfortunately had died in 2014; but further research led me to Georgette’s grandson, a U.S. Navy veteran, and his wife, who live in New Jersey and were unaware of Georgette’s service in World War I. They are history buffs, who had just read Switchboard Soldiers and were amazed to learn that “Grandma Georgette” actually had been a Hello Girl! They not only have shared this discovery with other family members but also have joined our descendants group – and they were able to attend the high school performance in Pennsylvania! So, as often happens, one connection leads to others! We are very excited to welcome these enthusiastic new Hello Girls family members to our group!

The Tamaqua, PA, production of the Hello Girls musical.

As in the stories above, the majority of the descendants who have joined our group to date are folks we have identified through our research. In addition, a number of descendants have contacted us after seeing stories related to the Congressional Gold Medal campaign or performances of the musical. It is always exciting to connect with a new descendant, and we were especially delighted to meet several in person at a recent ceremony honoring Hello Girl Irma Armanet in California.

Learning about the Hello Girls and working to preserve their legacy has truly been a labor of love for me and for all my M-HARP colleagues. Our dedicated volunteer research group includes academics and university librarians, as well as amateur genealogists like me. As this series on “Finding the Hello Girls” continues, other members of our group will share their discoveries and connections too. There are so many more stories yet to be found, and I am looking forward to continuing this amazing journey of discovery and connections!

Please look for a contribution from Lisa Oberg, Director of Special Collections at the University of Washington in Seattle, and a member of our M-HARP research group, next month.  If you would like to support the efforts of M-HARP, please consider making a donation here.

Donna Diamond Ayres is the grandniece of Hello Girl Olive Shaw.

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