Joyce Shaw (née Crosby, previously Gilroy) was Alec Gilroy's first wife and mother of Sandra.
Joyce met Alec when she assisted her father Harry "Bing" Crosby backstage at the Weatherfield Majestic, where Alec was in charge of the talent. Alec wooed Joyce with his tales of the big time which awaited him, and in 1955 they got married. Their happiness continued in 1958 when their daughter Sandra was born.
In 1971, not long after the Majestic was turned into a bingo hall and Alec made redundant, Joyce left Alec, taking Sandra with her, and moved into Chestnut Drive, Bamford with footballer Stan Shaw. Alec took his losses on the chin and moved on with his life, absenting himself from his ex-wife and daughter's lives until 1990, when he tried to re-establish contact with Sandra to make up for the years he'd stayed away. By this time, Joyce was married to Stan and they lived in Whitby. Failing to find any clues to his daughter's current whereabouts at their last known address in Bamford, Alec phoned Joyce for the first time in nearly twenty years. Joyce wasn't happy to hear from him, fearing he wanted to cause trouble, and led him a merry dance before giving him the address of Sandra and her family in Handforth.
On the morning of 15th July 1991, Joyce dropped dead from a heart attack. The news gave Alec a health scare as Joyce was three years younger than him and, the last time he saw her, she didn't smoke and was fit. Just four days after Joyce's death, both Sandra and her husband Tim died in a car crash.