Robert Francis Armstrong History

Robert Francis Armstrong ---July 11, 1912 To March 31, 1949

Robert Francis Armstrong was the second son and fifth child born to William Armstrong and Emma Louise Armstrong. He was born on July 11, 1912 in Salt Lake City. He was raised in Salt Lake and attended area schools. He went to Unita grade School, Roosevelt Jr. High and East High School. His family lived on Laird Avenue in Salt Lake City.
He had 1 brother and 4 brothers:

Helen Isabelle (Taufer)--------November 24, 1902
Marion (Pollock)---------------July 4, 1905
William Melbourne------------July 19, 1907
Louise Carolyn (Wirthlin)------February 21, 1910
Kathryn (Murray)-------------December 3, 1914

My husband went by the name of Robert. He studied 2 or 3 years at the University of Utah. Right after we were married on November 5, 1939 we left and drove up to Idaho Falls where my husband was to start a new job. He was going to manage the CIT office in Boise. This was a loan office that, at that time was handling automobile loans. When we were there it was mainly for automobile financing. There were not too many cars then, so it was a new thing. We had a little Buick car. Robert worked in the CIT office for two or three years, but then the banks closed and everything changed.

Three years later we came home to Salt Lake to help Robert’s family. His father, William Armstrong, was ill and dying. At this time Robert’s former employer requested him to return to Boise. We hardly got settled in Boise a second time when this company sent him to Yakima, Washington. The FHA had its own rules for giving loans. Some offices in Yakima were giving loans on anything people wanted to buy. Robert worked on the problem for some time. While in Yakima we made some friends who were moving and so Robert left CIT and took over our friend’s job and started working for Seattle First National Bank.

Robert had a leakage of his heart as a result of having rheumatic fever as a child. After we married he let me know in a hurry that I wasn’t to tell anyone. The doctors explained to him that any time his heart pumped it didn’t pump all of the blood out. I will never forget the evening of March 31, 1949. Robert had come home from work and I was at the stove in the kitchen. Robert had brought some Yo Yos home for the children to play with. Gregg was 2 and Bob was 6. They were truing to do the Yo Yos and were laughing. I went to the sink and looked in on them and just smiled. All of a sudden the children were running around squealing. I turned to look and found Robert on the floor on his hands and knees. The kids thought he was playing with them, but in truth he had collapsed and died on the living room floor. He was only 36 years and 9 months old when he died.

We had the funeral in the Joseph William Taylor Memorial Mortuary in Salt Lake City on April 4, 1949. He was buried in the William Armstrong Sr. and Caroline Carr Family plot in the Salt Lake City Cemetery.