Merle Egan Anderson

Egan in uniform, 1918

Merle Egan Anderson (born Merle Egan, Smith Center, Kansas c. 1888, died 1984)[1][2] was a member of the United States Army Signal Corps' Female Telephone Operators Unit during World War I. She is one of the first 447 female veterans of the U.S. Army.[3] She is credited for persisting in the effort to gain the Operators Unit veterans' status, which was eventually awarded by President Jimmy Carter, in 1979.[4][5]

She volunteered as a long-distance telephone operator working for Mountain States Telephone and Telegraph Company in Helena, Montana.[6] After the war, she married and moved to Seattle.[3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Women's Overseas Service League 1986.
  2. ↑ Cobbs 2017, p. 302.
  3. 1 2 Hanes 2007.
  4. ↑ Collins 2014.
  5. ↑ Army Signal Corps 2013.
  6. ↑ Montana Historical Society 2014.

Sources

  • Cobbs, Elizabeth (2017). The Hello Girls: America's First Women Soldiers. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-97147-9.
  • Ashley Mattingly (June 24, 2015), The Hello Girls Finally Get Paid, National Archives and Records Administration
  • Senior Master Sgt. Jerry Hanes (March 2, 2007), "Hello girls set stage for women in the military", Malmstrom Air Force Base news (online), United States Air Force
  • Gavin, Lettie (1997). American Women in World War I: They Also Served. University Press of Colorado.
  • Signal Corps Regimental History, United States Army, November 20, 2013
  • "Merle Egan Anderson: Montana's "Hello Girl"", Women's History Matters (blog), Montana Historical Society , November 11, 2014
  • Elizabeth M. Collins (March 2014), "World war I's Hello Girls: paving the way for women in the U.S. Army", Soldiers (magazine), United States Army
  • "Merle Egan Anderson "The Spirit That Prompted Overseas Service"", Carry On, Women's Overseas Service League, 66-69, p. 59, 1986
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