Judith Bullock was born in Red Springs, N.C., the youngest of five children. Her father, George, attended NC State and worked as an agronomist, specializing in tobacco. Her mother attended the Woman's College in Greensboro, N.C., and then Flora McDonald College in Red Springs. The couple married in 1906. George Bullock worked for the American Tobacco Company, eventually leaving North Carolina and working in Puerto Rico and Cuba. The rest of the family lived in Puerto Rico for several years, and then returned to Red Springs, where Judith Bullock attended high school. After graduating from high school, she spent two years at Peace College in Raleigh, N.C. Bullock transferred to Woman's College, where she majored in art, and graduated in 1941.

In August 1942, while taking defense courses in Raleigh, Bullock enlisted in the WAVES. She was called up in December and traveled by train to South Hadley, Mass., for training held at Mount Holyoke. She completed her training in February 1943, and was assigned to Public Works in the maintenance department of the Bureau of Aeronautics in Washington, D.C. She served as a messenger for several months and then held a series of other jobs in the maintenance department until the end of the war.

Bullock was put on reserve in November 1945, and in January 1946 she moved to Charlotte with her husband and started family. She married her first husband, Edward "Shorty" Thomas, on April 24, 1943.