Grace Derby Banker Paddock was the Chief Operator of the first unit (33 women) of US Army Signal Corps Telephone Operators to serve overseas during WWI.  She also went forward with Gen. Pershing's headquarters to serve near the front lines at the battles of St. Mihiel and Meuse-Argonne. 
For her leadership, Grace received the Distinguished Service Medal.  During the war and Peace Conference of 1919, the full contingent of women telephone operators connected over 26 million battlefield, diplomatic and supply calls.  Known affectionately as the Hello Girls, they received a baptism by fire when German troops pounded Paris with heavy artillery. 

In 2017, historian Elizabeth Cobbs published "The Hello Girls" which tells the little-known story of how America’s first women soldiers helped win World War I and earn the vote—and later took on the U.S. Army. Unceremoniously discharged in 1920 as civilians, not military veterans, the Hello Girls arrived home to new voting rights with ratification of the 19th Amendment and began a fight with the Army to be treated as equals of their male comrades. A handful of survivors carried their 60-year battle to triumph in 1979, with the eventual help of the National Organization for Women, Senator Barry Goldwater, and a crusading Seattle attorney, Mark Hough."

In March 2018, "The Hello Girls" documentary featuring Grace, and three other women, produced by Lincoln Penny Films premiered at the Military Women's Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery and screened at the National Archives, National WWI Museum in Kansas City, the Harry S Truman Presidential Library and in Chaumont, France among many other venues.

In December 2018, "The Hello Girls" musical produced by Cara Reichel and Peter Mills began a successful run in New York and appeared at the Kennedy Center in May 2024.  Universities and theater groups throughout the country have presented the musical to audiences with great acclaim.

In 2021, the children's book, "Grace Banker and Her Hello Girls Answer the Call: The Heroic Story of WWI Telephone Operators" was published by Claudia Friddell.

In March 2023, Sen. Jon Tester sponsored the Hello Girls Congressional Gold Medal Act to award the women's unit the nation's highest civilian award.  A House companion bill was sponsored by Rep. Emmanuel Cleaver from Missouri. 

After the war, Grace married Eugene H Paddock and settled in NY. They were the parents of three sons and a daughter, born between 1923 and 1931.

*The preceding content is not intended as a comprehensive biography, but it highlights their significance as a result of military or civilian distinction, lasting achievements, or association with impactful national events. 

GRACE BANKER PADDOCK

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