1941 ~ 2024
Anita Louise Griggs Armstrong passed away on February 12, 2024 after a brief crisis and long-term Parkinson’s Disease.
Anita was born in Duncan Oklahoma and graduated from high school there. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Central State University in Oklahoma, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in math education at Texas A&M University-Commerce. She taught junior high and high school mathematics in Dodge City, Kansas and in Enid, Oklahoma. After earning her doctorate, she joined the faculty of Dallas Baptist University, teaching mathematics there 1991-2011 until her retirement.
Anita married her high school sweetheart Tom Armstrong in 1960. She told one grandchild that they married very young, before they knew anything, and got to spend a life learning together. They lived a wonderfully full life, raising three energetic and rambunctious sons. They towed RVs all over the Rockies and both coasts (including through LA rush hour traffic), and she let herself get talked into one wild white water rafting trip down the Snake River in Wyoming.
She presided over a couple hundred holiday and special occasion meals. Mom was a superb cook, never afraid to try anything, even the prime rib and baked Alaska that became one son’s regular birthday dinner. She got a kick out of introducing the grandkids to their first oysters. All her boys and grandkids became good home cooks in part because of her. She got her boys to every Sunday church service, even when they had an awfully early Sunday morning paper route (they say she allowed skips only due to a couple of blizzards).
Anita was a fine pianist, having minored in piano at college, and then becoming a regular pianist for her church. The story is true that she fell fast asleep during one service and the preacher had to wake her up; we are fairly sure that was because one of the boys had kept her up late, although there may be a dispute about which one. She instilled a love of musicals, especially the “Sound of Music,” in kids and grandkids. There was never a bad day, she taught, that wouldn’t get better with the Sound of Music. She departed this life with the Rogers & Hammerstein station playing on her iPad and speaker.
She modeled full life love, taking full time care of Tom after his first strokes. They moved from Texas in 2014 to the Kansas City area to get closer to family and moved into John Knox Village.
Anita was preceded in death by her parents, Louis & Louise Griggs, and her step-dad Carroll Johnston; her husband of 57 years Tom; and their son Kevin. She is survived by her brother Allan Griggs and his children, two sons Gary and David and their spouses Linda and Krista, four grandchildren Michael, Katherine, Paul, and Clare, and three great-grandchildren.
The family is very grateful to the staff at St. Luke’s East hospital and John Knox Village, both its Care Center and its hospice team, for their loving care of our Gran in her last week.
The family will host a visitation at John Knox Village for friends and staff there. The family will host a private celebration of her life.
Rather than flowers, the family suggests a contribution to the Dr. Anita Armstrong Endowed Scholarship at Dallas Baptist University, https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/22404/donations/new?designation=dranitaarmstrongendowedscholarshipfund
