This Day in History: “1904– With a crank and a jingle, 48 subscribers entered the telephone age as Sarasota got its first telephone exchange. Miss Woodruff was the town’s first operator. The owners had expected only 25 customers or so.” — from Yesterday’s Sarasota 1993 Calendar by J Whitcomb Rylee in conjunction with HSoSC. (The photo’s from a book for sale on eBay; if you’re quick you can get it!)
The Historical Society of Sarasota County 
My grandmother was a telephone operator in Marine City, Michigan around 1910. She was about 17 years old. She was given the job, after a horrible storm on the Great Lakes, to call the new widows (those whose husbands had been lost at sea, to tell them that they were widow. Great job for a young girl. Can you even imagine how awful that must have been for her?
That’s a novel, waiting to be written, Sue!