Irving Joseph Armstrong Jr.

Irving Joseph Armstrong, Jr. Was born June 14,  in Manistique, Michigan, to Irving Joseph Armstrong ( 4/16/1892-10/1978) and the former Sarah Florence MacGilvary (Sadie). His father owned resort cottages on a lake there.  He had one sister Veronica , who was 12 when he was born. He also spoke of a cousin Jack Armstrong son of his father's brother, Ed.

  His dad , who was nicknamed "Army", had been married before and Irv had a half brother Harrison of Birmingham, Alabama and a half sister LaVonne Blowers of Nahma, Michigan who were many years older than he. Irv's mother passed away when he was a young boy and his father married Helen Melvin when he was in his teens.

  Irv's family moved to Miami when he was about six months old.  They initially lived down town near the Orange Bowl, but eventually bought a house just blocks from the ocean near Coconut Grove.  The house was made of poured concrete and would withstand the strongest of hurricane winds.  As a child Irv would climb the Mango tree in his yard and eat the  ripe sun warmed mangoes fresh from the tree as the juice ran down and stained his white T-shirt a bright orange. He loved to spend time at the Dinner Key Marina  in "The Grove" and loved to hear the clinking of the rigging on the sailboats against the masts. He always said he wanted us to live on a  boat and sail around the world.

 Irv's father and mother met when Harrison, Irv's older half brother, was in school.  Sara MacGilvary, Irv's mom, was his school teacher .  Irv's dad was born in Michigan . His mother was born in Lockhart, Fl, right next to Orlando , to Peter MacGilvary and Sarah Hunt.  His mother's parents were from North Carolina originally but moved to a farm in Mulberry, FL, where Irv would spend his summers as a child. His dad's parents Henry Armstrong(3/15/1863) and Mary Ann Martin (10/1/1872) were from Essex, Ontario, Canada and Garden Delta, Michigan, respectively.

 Irv's dad worked for the University of Miami and his mom gave up teaching to work in the Drapery department of Burdine's Department store. Irv's father was in World War 1 stationed in Europe.  He saved many maps and journals about his experiences .  Irv's dad also was an avid stamp collector and the collection was passed to Irv.  Irv's mom and dad also enjoyed playing bridge.

Irv's sister Veronica married( Richard Edwards)  and moved away when Irv was about six years old so with both his parents working , he became a "Latch key" child and came home from school to an empty house. After his mom passed away, he continued to care for himself until  he was about 17 and his dad remarried.  Irv was raised Baptist.  His best friend Brooks Harle lived near him and attended the same church.  The two boys were quite the pranksters, always getting in to trouble at church as neither really wanted to be there.  Their parents forced them to go.  Irv and I later were married at that church (Coral Baptist) with Brooks as best man.

Mary Anne Fernander who was Brooks' girlfriend was in my math class at Coral Gables High and introduced me to Irv  on a blind date.  We didn't like each other at first, but we wound up getting married and staying married for many years.

Irv and Brooks were both highly intelligent guys. Both had  a great sense of humor.  We had a really great time being young in Miami together. 

Irv graduated from Miami Senior High School , He attended Miami-Dade Junior College and the University of Miami, majoring in Civil Engineering.  He worked at Doudney's sheet metal works while going to college. He also took Karate Lessons during that time.  In later years after we moved to Orlando he attended the University of Central Florida, majoring in Engineering and Political Science.

Irv had joined the Army and was going to be sent to Viet Nam .  We got married about a week and a half before he shipped out . He was gone a year with  an Engineering Batallion building helicopter landing pads and bridges. He learned to be a land surveyor in the Army, which later became his profession. When he returned from over seas he still had another year or so to serve stationed at Arlington National cemetary where he was the head surveyor.

About a year  after Irv's homecoming our son Christopher Elliot Armstrong  was born.  I already had a  son(John Wesley Alvarez )by a previous marriage whom Irv cared for as his own. 

Irv worked as a Draftsman for  Dade County for a couple of years after he got out of the Army.   We moved to Orlando, Florida.  We bought a beautiful lakefront home here where we lived for manyyears.

Irv worked his way up in the corporate world becoming head of  Engineering departments and starting branch offices.  He had his own business for a while but found it was better for different reasons to work for a large company.

Irv was a great family man.  He was what I would consider the perfect husband and father.  He seemed to love me, his boys and his two grand daughters very much.  We always did things together . At holidays he would sit at the head of the table and carve the turkey just like in the Norman Rockwell paintings.  He would stay up all night Christmas Eve and the night before Easter assembling toys and filling stockings and baskets. We had a wonderful life. My mother(Sissy) and sister(Ginny) loved him too.

Irv was always quiet and shy, so he took Dale Carnegie classes  to help him make presentations in front of groups .  His personality blossomed.  He was always impeccably dressed.  He loved to fish, he loved the beach, he loved cats, he loved football, especially the Miami Hurricanes.He loved a good game of chess. He loved coffee, blueberry muffins, shrimp and J & B Scotch.  He had a quick wit and a genius IQ.  It seemed like there was nothing he couldn't do. He loved to read and wanted to be a writer.  He was quite good at it.  He wanted to write about his experience in Viet Nam.  He took a couple of creative writing courses.  He subscribed to Writer's Magazine.  He read "On the Road" by Jack Kerouac and I believe that became a turning point in his life.

Irv decided to leave us, his family, and move to another city.  We have not heard from him in several years.  We don't know where he is.   We hope he is happy and well, and that he has found whatever he was looking for.

As I have said in my other Family websites, it is so hard to sum up a person's existence in a few paragraphs, but at least this is a glimpse, although a tiny one into the life of a very interesting man, Irv Armstrong.

 Irv, we had some wonderful years together.  Thanks for the memories.

VXA

You can email me at vxarmstrong@gmail.com

Please visit our other family websites listed below.

Links to other family websites please don't forget to sign guestbooks:

http://www.freewebs.com/walterdeanmalec/

http://www.freewebs.com/johnwesleykuntz/index.htm

http://www.freewebs.com/valeriexarmstrong/

http://www.freewebs.com/jackblanchardandmistymorgan/index.htm