By Christina Gray
More than 50 years after she died and was buried in an unmarked grave at Holy Cross Cemetery in Colma, Irma Rameline Armanet received a military headstone in a ceremony earlier this year. The event honored her service and that of other “Hello Girls” for their contributions to the allied powers victory in World War I.
“What a privilege and pleasure it has been for our entire staff to be involved in telling the stories of The Hello Girls who are here at Holy Cross, and especially to be able to honor Irma Armanet with the placement of a veterans headstone, which is long overdue,” Monica Williams, director of cemeteries, said in her introductions on Feb. 7.
The crowd included descendants of some of the eight Hello Girls buried at Holy Cross as well as cast members of a local musical production about the bilingual telephone operators who served in the United States Army Signal Corp during World War I. They became colloquially known as The Hello Girls.
Could serve but not vote
Two hundred and twenty-three women served as critically needed bilingual telephone operators during World War I at the request of General John J. Pershing. The U.S. military needed skilled operators fluent in English and French to improve communications between the leaders of American and French armies. The elite corps of operators supported combat operations in France, connecting more than 26 million calls between 1917 and 1919 as part of the Signal Corps Telephone Operator Unit.
The young women volunteered to serve their country even before they had the right to vote. Despite consequential responsibilities, serving under commissioned officers, wearing dog tags, rank insignia, uniforms, swearing the Army oath, and being subject to courts-martial, The Hello Girls were told after the war ended that they had served as “civilian contractors,” not soldiers.
Long journey for recognition
Surviving unit members petitioned Congress for the same recognition afforded to their male colleagues and female Army nurses for nearly 60 years, according to The Hello Girls Military Honors and Remembrance Project. It was not until 2024 after The Hello Girls had been lost to decades of oblivion, that the women received the Congressional Medal of Honor. The Hello Girls were recognized as full military veterans in 1977.
Director of Cemeteries Monica Williams told Catholic San Francisco that the cemetery became a collaborative partner in honoring The Hello Girls buried at Holy Cross.
The Holy Cross partnership included a descendent of one of The Hello Girls, The Hello Girls Military Honors and Remembrance Project, the Doughboy Foundation, and Maeve Smith, director of a local musical production of The Hello Girls.
The granddaughter of Chief Operator Grace Banker had ambitions to visit as many of the servicewomen’s gravesites as she could find, according to Williams. She discovered that while Irma had been buried at Holy Cross, her grave was unmarked for reasons unknown. She contacted the Veteran’s Administration which arranged for a military headstone to be made and shipped to Colma for the honors.
Two years earlier, Maeve Smith’s first production of The Hello Girls was playing in the town of Sonoma. She discovered that veteran Hello Girl, Juliette Courtial Smith, had also been buried without a marker at the town’s St. Francis Solano Cemetery. She petitioned the American Legion to have a marker made for her.
Smith had another run of The Hello Girls in March at The Ross Valley Players, a theater group in Kentfield. Holy Cross timed the ceremony to coincide with it. Some of the cast traveled to the cemetery for the ceremony and even sang for it.
Father Tom Martin, then-pastor of St. Pius Parish, blessed Armanet’s headstone. Williams accepted the folded American flag on her behalf.
Armanet did not marry or have children. “We stand in for her family now,” Williams said.
Holy Cross Cemetery’s Hello Girls
Irma Ramekin Armanet
(1892-1975)
Armanet was born in France and moved to the United States in 1912. She was selected in 1918 among thousands of applicants to join the Fourth Group of Signal Corp telephone operators for the U.S. Army. She would serve in the American Expeditionary Forces until 1919 after which she returned to San Francisco, became a U.S. citizen and started a successful business here.
Other Hello Girls veterans buried at Holy Cross include:
Jeanne Bouchet (1894-1970)
Martha Mary Carroul (1896-1965)
Jeanne Catherine Victoire Legallet (1896-1984)
Marguerite “Rita” Mahoney (1877-1969)
Margaret Genevieve Olker (1891-1985)
Lawrence Helen Pechin (1887-1934)
Marie Louise Catherine Ruffe (1892-1975)
Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.
