Behind the Voice with a Smile: Large Type

The Bell System telephone operator was touted in much of AT&T's advertising as The Voice with a Smile-a young, demure girl wearing a metal headset with a black transmission horn hanging around her neck. The Voice with a Smile equated to courteous, dependable around-the-clock service, and year after year she was voted by many Americans to be the symbol of courtesy, but that was certainly not the whole story-not by a long shot!

Nelly Nallon was born in Carbondale, Pennsylvania, on October 2, 1928, and was the youngest of seven children, two boys and five girls. She attended John Marshall Elementary School, Roosevelt Junior High, and Benjamin Franklin High School for four years. Benjamin Franklin was the regional high school for five surrounding communities. At her graduation ceremony, Nelly was greatly honored as the valedictorian of the graduating class of 256 students and was awarded a full four-year scholarship to attend New Jersey's prestigious Princeton University. However, because her father had been killed in an industrial accident when Nelly was twelve years old, and with a very sick mother in dire need for Nelly to care for her, Nelly was unable to take advantage of that well-deserved and fully-paid for scholarship at Princeton University.