Audrey B. Wright, a former substitute teacher who had been a civilian code breaker during World War II, died Thursday at University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center of heart failure. She was 98.
The daughter of Milton W. Bosley, founder of a picture frame molding business that bore his name, and Anna Stallman Bosley, a homemaker, Audrey Molly Bosley was born in Baltimore and raised in Ten Hills and at a home on the Magothy River.
She was a 1935 graduate of Western High School and earned a bachelor's degree in 1939 from the University of Maryland, College Park, where she was a member of Alpha Omicron Pi sorority. She also studied piano at the Peabody Conservatory.
During World War II, Mrs. Wright became a civilian code breaker for naval intelligence and was assigned to the Panama Canal Zone, where she decoded enemy communications from the Pacific.
Mrs. Wright's work was used in the Battle of Midway, one of the most significant naval engagements of World War II.
Mrs. Wright never disclosed in great detail the nature of her work during the war, family members said.
"She worked on top-secret communications and took most of those secrets with her," said Cindy Wright, her daughter-in-law, who lives in Owings Mills.
In 1941, she married Fred Wright, who at the time was a Navy chief petty officer. After the war, the couple lived on a farm on Dover Road in Baltimore County and later moved to Mays Chapel.
Mrs. Wright received certification as a grade-school instructor and substituted in several Baltimore County third-grade classrooms through the years. She also worked part time for Milton W. Bosley & Co. Inc.
She was a member of the Baltimore Country Club and the Three Arts Club of Homeland. She was a Salvation Army and hospital volunteer.
In recent years, she lived at the Broadmead retirement community in Cockeysville.
A bridge player, she also liked driving two vintage automobiles that she owned, a 1948 Cadillac that had once been owned by her father and a 1972 convertible Buick Grand Sport.
Mrs. Wright continued playing the piano and had entertained family and friends as recently as Christmas, family members said.
Her husband, who later became president of Milton W. Bosley & Co. Inc., died in 2001.
Mrs. Wright was a member of St. Stephen's Anglican Church, 11856 Mays Chapel Road, Timonium, where services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
In addition to her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Wright is survived by her son, Milton Bosley Wright of Owings Mills; a daughter, Barbara Tye of Sarasota, Fla.; six grandchildren; and seven great-grandchildren.