Not a Museum, but a Mirror: How one book, one library event and one basketball game revealed the Hello Girls’ living legacy

Like many of you, I grew up with family stories about my grandmother, Marie Edmée LeRoux, who served in World War I. I knew she had gone to France. I knew she had done something with telephones. But the details were vague, the context missing, and the significance of what she accomplished remained largely a mystery to me.

That changed when I picked up Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs’ book, The Hello Girls: America’s First Women Soldiers.

Reading Elizabeth’s book opened a window onto the full sweep of American history during World War I, and suddenly my grandmother’s story fell into place within it. I finally understood not just what my grandmother did, but why it mattered. These women underwent rigorous testing, connected over 26 million calls during the war, and operated under combat conditions. Yet when they came home, they were denied the veterans’ status they had earned and fought for sixty years for recognition.

Elizabeth’s book, published in 2017, uncovered a story buried for a century. Its impact continues to resonate into the present. This Women’s History Month, the Hello Girls’ story stepped out of the pages of history and into the present in two unforgettable moments.

The first began closer to home, within my own DAR chapter. The Daughters of the American Revolution has been honoring and serving veterans since its founding in 1890, from recording the stories of Revolutionary War patriots to delivering care packages to troops abroad, greeting honor flights, and volunteering thousands of hours annually at veterans’ facilities across the country. The Freedom Hill Chapter does its part to carry that spirit of service and remembrance forward. In 2024, our chapter book club invited members to suggest titles for our next read. The Hello Girls made the list and, to my delight, won the vote. I then reached out to Dr. Cobbs and was honored when she agreed to join our chapter discussion online. That conversation planted a seed. Inspired by that experience and by the spirit of America 250, Chapter Second Vice Regent Clelia Walters took the idea further, organizing a public event at the Dolly Madison Library, opening the doors to the community and to District VIII chapter members, so that even more people could discover this remarkable story.

Display at the Women’s History Month Hello Girls event organized by the Freedom Hill Chapter of The Daughters of the American Revolution on March 13, 2026 at the Dolly Madison Library in McLean, VA, Marie Edmée LeRoux is pictured in the photo and poster at left.

On Friday, 13 March 2026 at 4pm, the Dolly Madison Library became an intimate gathering place for history. Clelia set the stage with grace and purpose, and it was my honor to introduce Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs and her landmark book, an honor made deeply personal by the impact that book had on my own understanding of my grandmother’s role in World War I.

The small audience was attentive from the first moment. They always are when they discover for the first time that the Hello Girls ever existed. I shared a brief glimpse of Edmée’s story. She was a young bilingual woman, one of approximately 280 carefully selected volunteers, courageous and independent, who offered her skill and her patriotic duty to support the Doughboys, to help win the war, and to help save France.

Dr. Elizabeth Cobbs speaks virtually about her book The Hello Girls, America’s First Women Soldiers, to the attendees at the Freedom Hill Chapter of DAR’s Women’s History Month event the Dolly Madison Library.

And then it was time for the woman who started it all.

Elizabeth Cobbs took the floor. The room came alive. She is a gifted storyteller in any format. A professor who keeps her students riveted, drawing them in with a soft, melodious voice and a warm smile, while never softening the truth of how it really was. Her slides brought the era to life. Image after image from that remarkable period, each one a launching point for her narrative. She told not only the Hello Girls’ story but the story of her own research, the long journey of writing the book, and the extraordinary chain of events it set in motion. That book sparked the Congressional Gold Medal campaign in partnership with the World War One Centennial Commission and the Doughboy Foundation. Think about that for a moment. One book. One determined scholar. One story too important to remain buried. And history was changed.

Two days later, the Hello Girls’ legacy stepped off the page and onto the basketball court.

On Sunday 15 March 2026, the CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament was underway at CareFirst Arena in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Washington, DC. The Charleston Cougars, led by coach Robin Harmony, faced off against Hofstra. It was a day celebrating women’s athletic excellence. But at halftime, something even more remarkable happened.

Colonel Linda Jantzen (Ret.), U.S. Army Signal Corps, is honored as a Home Town Hero at the CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 15,

Thanks to a recommendation by the Doughboy Foundation, two women who had each played a vital and unique role in the Congressional Gold Medal campaign were honored as Hometown Heroes before a cheering crowd. Linda Jantzen, retired Colonel of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, brought thirty years of military expertise, her credibility, and her deep knowledge of Signal Corps history to our campaign. She walked in the very footsteps of the Hello Girls who had served in that same corps over a century before her. Then she walked the halls of Capitol Hill, campaigning for cosponsors for their Congressional Gold Medal bill.

Doughboy Foundation bugler Christina Alegre plays the National Anthem at the CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 15.

Christina Alegre, Staff Sergeant, currently serving for the past three years in a premier Washington, DC military band as a trumpet player and bugler, donned a Hello Girls uniform replica to play Taps at Hello Girls events, honoring their memory with music and ceremony. She brought visibility to the Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal campaign by representing them in uniform and performing at a range of events, from Congressional offices to a televised basketball game, turning their history into something tangible and accessible. She continues to advocate for their legacy, sharing their story and ensuring their contributions are recognized by new audiences. On this occasion, she lifted her trumpet and played the National Anthem before the crowd.

Both women were recognized at halftime. Both were presented with a ceremonial basketball. Both were beaming. They couldn’t stop smiling!

Linda Jantzen (left) and Christina Alegre are presented with ceremonial basketballs at the CAA Women’s Basketball Tournament at CareFirst Arena in Washington, DC on Sunday, March 15, by Brian Gordon, Senior Associate Commissioner for Football and Sports Administration, Coastal Athletic Association (CAA).

I was there. I accompanied Linda to that game. We wore our Hello Girls t-shirts. We cheered. We took photos. And as I watched Linda and Christina being celebrated on that court, something struck me deeply.

Just as each Hello Girl had brought her own unique skill and courage in service of a common cause a century ago, so too had each member of our CGM campaign team brought her own unique gifts to serve the Hello Girls’ memory. Linda brought her military credibility and Signal Corps expertise. Christina brought her music, her uniform, and her reverence for ceremony. Elizabeth Cobbs brought her scholarship and her storytelling. Clelia Walters and the DAR brought their organizational support and patriotic mission. Each one of us answered the call. Each one of us did our part.

Sound familiar? It should. The Hello Girls did exactly the same thing in 1918.

There in that arena, surrounded by the energy of women competing at the highest level of their sport, the spirit of the Hello Girls felt very much alive. Women’s History Month is not a museum. It is a mirror. And what it reflected back to us that Sunday was something worth cheering for!

Catherine Bourgin and her grandmother Marie Edmee LeRoux.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           .

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