Updated: 06 Sep 2009

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Altus Times 
Altus, Jackson County, Oklahoma
September 2000

Dr. James W. (Jay) Hancock died Sep 8, 2000, following a very short illness. Funeral services were held at the Falconhead Chapel, west of Marietta, on Sep 11, 2000. Interment was at Chapel Hill Memorial Gardens in Oklahoma City.

Hancock was the son of William (Bill) and Elsie Hancock. He was born in Mounds on Nov  15, 1924. He graduated from Altus High School in 1942. The family then moved to Oklahoma City. 

He served in the Army Air Corps during World War II in the 10th Combat Cargo in the China-Burma-India Theater from 1943 until 1946.

He met his bride, Betty Hinchee, attended Southwestern State College in Weatherford and attended Chicago College of Optometry, graduating in 1953.

He practiced in Wynnewood and Wewoka, before establishing his long-term practice in Yukon, from which he retired in 1985. He and his wife retired to Falconhead where he enjoyed golf. Hancock was preceded in death by his parents, a brother and a sister.

Survivors include: his wife Betty; a daughter, Michelle (Mickey) O'Dell, Burke, Va. and her husband Col. Allen O'Dell; three grandchildren, Brian Jones of Fort Bragg, N.C., Deborah and her husband Dallas Gusan and Richelle and her husband Mike Mayzak, all of Yukon; two step-grandchildren, Michael and Chuck O'Dell; four great-grandchildren, Taylor and Hillary Gusan and Hannah and Emma Mayzak.

The family requests that memorials be made to the Bank of Oklahoma, in care of the Jay Hancock Memorial Fund, where a scholarship fund for senior wrestlers at Yukon High School has been established in his honor.

SOURCE: Altus Times [Dec 2001]