On This Day in Telephone History June 5TH 1946 Telephone switchboard operator Julia Curran Berry becomes Heroine of the La Salle Hotel Fire.
Forty-four year old widow Julia Curran Berry was the nighttime telephone switchboard operator at the La Salle Hotel when fire broke out. It spread quickly through the hotel’s highly-varnished paneling, traveled up stairwells, and trapped hundreds of guests in upper story rooms. As flames shot out around the seventh floor, screams and cries of men and women could be heard from the street.
The inferno grew and the night manager came across Julia Berry still at the switchboard alerting guests. As he tried to drag her out, Berry resisted saying, “No. I’m going to stay at my station. We’ve got to give those folks on the top floors a chance.” Ultimately, Firemen found her burned body slumped over the switchboard, her earphones still in place, her fingers clutching a phone plug. Officials said that her selfless act saved hundreds of lives.
JULY 15TH – THEODORE N. VAIL GOLD MEDAL AND $1000 POSTHUMOUSLY AWARDED TO MRS. JULIA C. BERRY