Born in Wildwood, New Jersey, on May 4, 1898, Joy Bright graduated from the Pierce School of Business Administration in Philadelphia in 1918 and promptly enlisted in the naval reserve. From 1919 she worked as a civilian for the navy at various stations and at the Department of the Navy in Washington, D.C. In 1924 she married Lieutenant Commander Lewis Hancock, a naval aviator who died in the crash of the dirigible Shenandoah the following year. In 1928 she took a civil pilot╒s license, and after a period of study at George Washington University and elsewhere she joined the navy╒s Bureau of Aeronautics. Her Airplanes in Action appeared in 1938. She also edited the newsletter that became the Naval Aviation News. Shortly after the creation of the new women╒s naval reserve, the Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service (WAVES), in July 1942 she joined, becoming a lieutenant in October, lieutenant commander in November 1943, and commander in March 1945. In February 1946 she was named assistant director of the WAVES, and in July she became director with the rank of captain.
The women╒s reserve passed out of existence in October 1948, but under provisions of the Women╒s Armed Services Integration Act of June 12, 1948, the Navy was authorized to offer regular commissions to women. In October Captain Hancock was among the first eight women so commissioned, taking rank of permanent lieutenant commander and temporary captain, which made her the navy's highest ranking woman. She was appointed assistant chief for women of the Bureau of Personnel and continued as ex officio director of WAVES (the name, though unofficial, persisted) until her retirement in June 1953. She was succeeded in that post by Captain Louise K. Wilde. In 1972 she published an autobiography, Lady in the Navy. Hancock received the Legion of Merit for her wartime service. She died on August 20, 1986, in Bethesda, Maryland.
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