Annie Armstrong

Annie Armstrong WASHINGTON, D.C. Annie Corpening Armstrong, who grew up in Morganton, died Monday, April 16, 2012 following an extended illness. She was 77. Armstrong was born Dec. 22, 1934 to Helen Virginia Chambers Corpening and Paul Corpening. Her parents, a laborer and a full-time homemaker, named her after her maternal aunt, Annie Bell Chambers. Armstrong was baptized in the family home on West Concord Street around age four, by a preacher from Slade Chapel AME Zion Church. A few years later, Armstrong began attending Sunday school, where she discovered that, "the Sunday school lessons were helpful but most of all I learned at home by listening to my parents sing beautiful hymns of praise and thanks," she wrote. "Spirituality was much alive in our home." In addition to a love of God, which sustained her throughout her long life, Armstrong also developed a life-long passion for literature and reading. Books offered more than just entertainment. They also served as her window to a larger world outside the tiny, racially segregated mountain community where she grew up. Reserved by nature, she often would escape the hubbub of being in a large family by retreating into the bedroom she shared with her sisters to read novels such as "Little Black Sambo" by Grant Richards, and "Flicka, Ricka and Dicka" and "Snipp, Snapp and Snurr" both by Maj Lindman. "The highlight of the summer always was when one of the Henessee ladies would drive down to our neighborhood. She had children's books in the trunk of her car. She would allow us to borrow them one at a time," Armstrong recalled. "The city public libraries were off limits to 'colored people' as we were called then. Oh, how I yearned for books and magazines." Money, however, was always in scare supply. Anne was barely a teenager when she started working at her first real job one vacated by her older sister, Edna. "Domestic work was the ONLY kind of work that we African-American females were allowed to do," Armstrong wrote of her childhood. "After school every day, I would wash dishes, run the carpet sweeper, make beds and take out the trash. On Saturdays, I prepared lunch for them. That's where I learned the proper way to set a table. My weekly salary was $5 I entered and left by the back door. Ate what I was told to eat. After they finished, I ate in the kitchen. I knew then that I did not want to be a domestic worker. Thanks to God and Chuck (her oldest sister), I didn't have to be one." After graduating from Mt. Olive High School, she enrolled in North Carolina Central University, formerly called the North Carolina College for Negroes. It was the nation's first state-supported liberal arts college established specifically for African-American students. Her parents couldn't afford to send her, so her older sister, Charlene Corpening, a.k.a. Chuck, financed her education. "I was intrigued by the beautiful campus and the excitement of college life. Chuck told me that I could attend any college I wanted to. I believe N.C.C. was the only college to which I applied. I was very excited when the letter of acceptance came." "I traveled by way of Trailways bus from Morganton to Durham. Chuck had sent me a tan, hard finished suit with a split in the back with three small buttons on the split. I wore a green, sheer blouse. My money - the most money I had ever handled in my life - was pinned in my bra. The year, 1952, was before Mrs. Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat on a local bus in Montgomery, Ala., hence segregation was the way of life in the South. I hated it, felt humiliated by it and refused to feel less than anyone else even though I wouldn't and couldn't say it aloud." In the beginning, she was homesick for her mother to the point where she couldn't eat. But as the years went by, she worked her way through school, making many wonderful friends, many of whom remained close throughout her lifetime. It was while attending summer school during her senior year that she met the late McKinley J.H. Armstrong, an N.C.C. alum, who was back from the Korean Conflict and seeking a master's degree in education. Tall, handsome and charismatic, he asked her to dance at a school party and they quickly became an item. One of their favorite tunes back then was Peggy Lee's, "You Give Me Fever." They made an attractive couple and spent many dates enjoying North Carolina bar-b-que sandwiches and watching kids play softball and other outdoor sports. They married May 4, 1957 in a small, private ceremony. They began their married life together in a rooming house in Southern Pines, N.C., where they taught at the same school. In June of 1961, they moved to another segregated school district in Front Royal, Va. As their family got bigger, so did the demands on them, but they were always a united front, sacrificing to put five children through Catholic schools. Except for the year she took off following the birth of twins in 1963, Anne always had a job outside the home. She spent the bulk of her career working as an elementary school librarian in the Washington, D.C., public school system. She began teaching at Watkins Elementary School in the late 1960s. She finished her professional career at Plummer Elementary in 1992. One of the biggest joys of her life came from sharing her boundless enthusiasm about books and learning with young people. She retired from teaching in 1992 and spent many of her retirement years passing on her love of reading to her grandchildren. As the years passed on, Anne luxuriated in quiet time at her home and in spending time with family. She loved Waterford crystal, pink roses, peonies, Coco Chanel fragrance, finely-made clothing and other beautiful things, as well as creating a nurturing environment for all friends and relatives who knew that the door to 1346 Monroe St., N.E. was always open. Maryland-style crab cakes were her specialty and she always seemed to have a pot of collard greens simmering on a back burner. For the friends who couldn't stop by, the telephone was her way of staying connected. A long-time resident of the Brookland neighborhood of Northeast, she was a regular at early services at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church until illness made it masses difficult to attend. Ever faithful, she continued to receive communion in her home, thanks to the commitment of Deacon John Feeley and other members of the St. Anthony community. She was by the side of her loving soul mate of 53 years, when he passed from this life in Feb. 2010. Diagnosed with cancer in 1992, she fought a good fight against the disease for two decades before she made her own peaceful transition Monday, April 16, at her home. She is survived by five children, Chip Armstrong, Jenice Armstrong Turner and Cameron Turner, Cheryl Armstrong Capers and Dr. Quinn Capers, IV, Carolyn Armstrong and Marilyn Armstrong; six siblings, Edna White, Vanda Reese, Mary Jo Thompson, Wanda Scott, Brenda Randolph and Ronald Corpening; five grandchildren; many loving nieces, nephews and in laws. A mass of Christian burial will take place Tuesday, April 24, at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, at 12th and Monroe streets NE in Wash., D.C. 20017. Funeral services will begin at 10 a.m., following a 9 a.m. viewing, also at the church. Internment will immediately follow at Ft. Lincoln Cemetery in Brentwood, Md. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that contributions be made to St. Anthony's, www.stanthonyofpadua.org.