Nell Caroline Woodward Hancock was born on May 19, 1882, in Frankfort, Michigan, graduated from high school there, earned a teachers certificate from Mich. State Normal College in Yfsilanti, Mich., and taught primary school in Frankfort. On Dec. 31, 1904, she married Frank Beckwith Hancock, a fruit broker from South Haven, Mich., and they made their home in Frankfort, where they had three children, Helen, Dorthy, and Bob. In July 1917, the family moved to Yale, Oklahoma, where Mr. Hancock had previously purchased a refinery. Hancock became a leader and organizer who motivated people to make Yale a better place to live. In the fall of 1917, she organized the Civic Improvement League and served as president for ten years. Under her leadership, the club carried out many civic and cultural projects, including manning a booth on Main Street that sold World War I savings stamps, planning and installing a white way as one of the first towns to have electric lights, assisting in planning paved streets and curbs and gutters, naming the city streets, and establishing the city library. In addition to city and club work, she started a Dance Club that held regular dances in the Masonic Hall, was instrumental in bringing the Lyceum from Chautauqua, New York, to Yale each year, started and became the first president of the P.E.O. Chapter in Yale, started the Dutton Club for high school girls, and served as chairman of the conservation division of the Oklahoma State Federation of Women's Club. She died in November 1945 in Oklahoma City and was buried in Crystal Lake Township Cemetery, Frankfort, Mich.