It’s not often that a high school actor has the opportunity to become immersed in a character for most of the school year, but Sutton Van Lenten and her fellow cast members of “Hello Girls” have done just that at Greenbrier High School.
Van Lenten plays Grace Banker, who led a group of women soldiers in World War I in France. They were telephone operators known as the “Hello Girls’. A musical based on their stories will be presented at 7 p.m. Jan. 29-31 at Greenbrier High School. They did a one-act version of the show in the fall.
Van Lenten can relate to parts of her character.
“I’m pretty strong. Act 2 Grace Banker is very similar to me as a person. In Act 1, she’s a softer leader – more like “big sister Grace’ than a leader,” said Van Lenten, a senior, who enjoys watching and experiencing Grace’s character arc.
Preparations for “Hello Girls” began in late July 2025 with opportunities for the students to learn about this unique group of women.
“In 1918 the U.S. Army Signal Corps sent 223 women to France as telephone operators to help win the Great War. By war’s end, they had connected over 26 million calls and were recognized by Gen. John J. Pershing for their service,” said a 2018 press release from the National Archives in highlighting a documentary about them.
Most telephone operators in the U.S. at the time were women, which is the reason women were recruited for the positions.
Students visited Fort Gordon, the home of the Signal Corps, to learn about the Hello Girls’ history and to see some of the equipment they would’ve used. Some of the cast members also talked with their descendants while studying their roles.
Van Lenten learned a lot about the woman Grace Banker was through her journals and other writings. She’s worked to stay true to history.
The play is based on the lives of several women including Banker as well as composites of other Hello Girls. Some pf the ensemble actors play their parts with specific Hello Girls in mind even though the script doesn’t name them.
Junior Kit Fagan plays a couple of different roles including an operator and a doughboy – the nickname for American infantry soldiers.
Fagan said the visit to Fort Gordon and the conversations with family members shaped their understanding not only of their characters but of the time the women lived. And it’s made their performances better.
One part of the play which impacts her is the song “Making History.” The lyrics offer a call to action.
“Would you go out against the odds when society does not have your back? Would you be able to do that?” she asked.
The Hello Girls made history as the first female soldiers, but their battle didn’t stop when the war ended. They would fight their own government for recognition; a fight some women died before the victory came.
It wasn’t until President Jimmy Carter signed the GI Bill of Improvement Act of 1977 that the ”Hello Girls” were considered veterans and allowed to receive the Victory Medal of World War I. Two years later in 1979, the 31 surviving women received their medals.
“The fact that they weren’t given recognition breaks my heart,” Van Lenten said. “Grace gives me the strength to keep fighting my own battles.”
In 2023, the Congressional Gold Medal was awarded to the Hello Girls.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
