(18 July 1895 – 8 December 1952)
Group 7
Operator Elsa Freeman was born in Manhattan, New York, the eldest child of John and Mary (Billups Freeman. In the early 1900s, the family moved to Chicago, where Mr. Freeman was a representative of the American Hard Rubber Company.
Elsa attended Hyde Park High School and then the University of Chicago and studied in French in both schools. She entered training for the US Army Signal Corps in April of 1918, having no previous telephone experience. As part of the Seventh Group, Ms. Freeman had her bags packed and was ready to go when the Armistice was signed. She was discharged in December of 1918.
Shortly after her return to Illinois, Elsa Freeman married John Helfrich, who ran a chemistry laboratory. They had four children together, two sons and two daughters. Mr. Helfrich died young, in 1939. Mrs. Elsa Freeman Helfrich passed away in 1952. She is buried near her husband in Wheaton Cemetery in Wheaton, DuPage County, Illinois.
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