Pauline Hancock
Pauline Bailey Hancock (1903 – October 19, 1962) was the founder of the Church of Christ (Hancock) in Independence, Missouri in 1946, and was the first woman to found and lead a denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. A former member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and then later the Church of Christ (Temple Lot), Hancock was excommunicated from the Temple Lot church in 1935, due to differences between her view of the Godhead and theirs. She later claimed a vision of Jesus Christ, who she claimed had told her to "go and teach," leading her to found her own church in 1946. She would lead this church until her death in 1962. Early life and Latter Day Saint heritage Pauline Bailey was a member of the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (now called the Community of Christ), whose father had been a minister of that denomination in Salt Lake City, Utah. She moved to Independence, Missouri in 1923 after marrying Silas Hancock. During the Supreme Directional Control controversy of the 1920s, she opposed President Frederick M. Smith's attempt to take "supreme directional control" over the RLDS church; she