LILLIE, Nathaniel W.

Arizona Republic (Phoenix, Arizona) Monday, March 1, 1948, p. 2 Telephone Pioneer, 91 Years Old, Dies BROOKLINE, Mass., Feb. 29--(AP)--Nathaniel W. Lillie, 91 years old, credited by company officials as being one of the country's first telephone operators, died last night. An acquaintance of Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, Lillie began his duties with the telephone company in October, 1877, at the old telephone dispatch office in downtown Boston. Lillie retired in 1914 after 37 years of service with the New England Telephone and Telegraph Company.