Janet R. Jones was born in Newark on Aug. 12, 1883, the third child of five born to John David Jones and Rachel Giffen Jones.

Her mother died in 1889 when Janet was just 15 years old. In 1892, her father married his deceased wife’s younger sister Jesse. The family lived in Granville where Janet attended Denison University receiving, a bachelor of science degree in zoology in 1904.

Her passion wasn’t zoology however, but the French Language. In 1912 she began her teaching career at Newark High School as a French teacher. She furthered her education in the summer months, attending Columbia University in New York City. As a part of her studies, in 1913 she traveled to France and lived for two months in Paris.

Janet lived at 40 West Locust Street in 1917 when the United States entered World War 1. In the fall of that year, as American troops began arriving in France, the commander of the American Expeditionary Force General John "Black Jack" Pershing encountered a problem that he wasn’t expecting with his communications. The troops on the front line depended on telephones to communicate with their commanders and also with their British and French allies.

The phone lines were tied into switchboards located throughout France. When a call came in, it was answered by an operator, the operator then transferred the call to the next appropriate operator by plugging the cord into the appropriate spot of the switchboard. Many times, the operator needed to phone the next switchboard operator and translate into French what the caller needed before transferring the call. 

It was very labor intensive and important to move these calls as quickly as possible, men’s lives depended on it. Pershing discovered that the soldiers from the signal corps were woefully slow in transferring calls and couldn’t communicate with the French operators. He was informed that female operators in America could transfer a call many times faster than their male counterparts. Pershing asked his superiors for approximately 240 woman operators who were fluent in French to join the Army Signal Corps and be shipped overseas as soon as possible. The request was approved and advertisements were placed in major papers seeking woman for this assignment.

On Dec. 10, 1917, Janet sent a letter to the address in the paper. "Having seen in the New York Times the notice that woman with a knowledge of French and English are wanted as telephone girls in France, I am writing for information and an application blank. I have had no experience as a telephone girl, but doubtless, I could learn the duties in a short time, and I know French. I teach French in the Newark High School, and I am 34-years-of-age and a graduate of Denison University. I have studied French in Paris and I take lectures in French every summer at Columbia University. I did not have time to communicate with the professors there, but if desired I can refer to those under whom I take work there."

Janet received the application she asked for and returned it, but by Jan. 21, 1918, she had only received a letter her application had received a "favorable notice." Her struggles with the U.S. Army were just beginning.  


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