Iowa
Old Press
The Sioux City Journal
Tuesday, Dec. 16, 1941
OPERATOR TO GIVE UP WORK.
Homer Woman Who Was Honored for Heroism to Retire.
Homer, Neb.—Special: Mrs. Mildred Lothrop, telephone operator here who received two $1,000 awards and two gold medals for heroic action, will retire as telephone operator at Homer on December 31. Mrs. Lothrop at that time will have served continuously in the same office without sick relief since October 15, 1914, or more than 27 years.
She received the honors as a result of heroic action at her switchboard during the flood of May 31, 1920, and the even more disastrous flood here the night of June 4, 1940. She also was the first telephone operator in the United States to receive the Theodore Vail gold medal. The first presentation was made by Gov. McKelvie in 1921. On June 14, 1941, at a public gathering in her honor at the Homer auditorium, the second presentation was made by the president of the Northwestern Bell Telephone Company.
Mrs. Lothrop was born six miles west of Homer December 10, 1876. She was married at Dakota City to M. L. Lothrop, a salesman. The family lived one year in Sioux City, six years at St. Joseph, Mo., and 10 years at Atchison, Kan., before Mrs. Lothrop returned to Homer as telephone operator.
Mrs. Lothrop is the mother of five sons: Maj. M. M. Lothrop, Camp Davis, North Carolina; Harold, Santa Anna, Cal.; Everett, San Diego, Cal.; Kenneth, Sioux City; and Donald of Norfolk.
[transcribed by L.Z., Nov 2020]