Annie Armstrong

One of the biggest joys of Annie C. Armstrong's life was sharing her boundless enthusiasm about books and learning with young people. Anne spent the bulk of her professional teaching career at Watkins Elementary School on Capitol Hill and at Plummer Elementary School in Southeast where she introduced scores of school children to the joys of reading. An elementary school librarian, she delighted in dramatic readings of young adult novels such as "Sounder" by William H. Armstrong. Even the rowdiest students would settle down and listen enthralled as she adapted her voice to that of each character. No one could read a story book aloud the way she could. Anne was born on Dec. 22, 1934 to the late Helen Virginia Chambers Corpening and Paul Corpening of Morganton, N.C. The fifth of 10 children, her parents named her after her maternal aunt, Annie Bell Chambers. Times were hard and money was always scarce. Her father worked as a laborer and in furniture factories. To stretch his earnings, he grew corn, white potatoes, green beans, tomatoes, okra and other vegetables. The family usually had several pigs. Anne's mother "Hahn," a full-time homemaker, washed clothes outside in a washtub. They used kerosene lamps for lighting. "We lived in a four-room house with a tiny room that became a toilet around 1953. So, of course, the living room was small," Anne once wrote of her life. "When my brother Charlie was living and at home, my parents slept in the living room. Also later around 1947 when Charlie died and Nuke came to live with us, they slept in the living room. I remember the mantelpiece and a pot-bellied stove. My eldest sister Chuck's picture was on the wall. There also was a picture of Boot in her nurse's cap and a picture of Jesus. Occasionally, we would get a used sofa and chair and linoleum for the floor. Neither the furniture nor the flooring lasted long because the living room was where we were until bedtime, the most used room in the house. My mother had a chair and so did my dad. We sat on the couch. This is where we listened to the battery Philco radio. The stove in the living room and the cook stove in the kitchen were our sources of heat." A preacher from Slade Chapel AME Zion Church baptized Anne in the family home on West Concord Street when she was around 4 years old. A few years later, she 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," Anne wrote. "Spirituality was much alive in our home." "Hahn was the first person to talk to me about God. She taught me that God loved me and taught me to sing... I also learned about the goodness of the Lord from my dad whose father was a preacher." Her favorite Bible verse was Matthew 3:17, "And lo a voice heaven saying 'This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.'" In addition to developing a personal relationship with God that sustained her throughout the many challenges of her life, Anne became passionate about reading. For a poor girl growing up in the South, books served as her window to a larger world outside the tiny, racially segregated mountain community where she lived. Reserved by nature, she would escape the hubbub of family life 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 (family members) 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," Anne recalled in some notes she made about her life. "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, who had her share of chores at home, was barely a teenager when she started working at her first real job - one vacated by her older sister, Edna. "I worked for Mrs. Massey. Domestic work was the ONLY kind of work that we African American females were allowed to do. Mrs. Massey, Mr. Massey and Dickie lived about four and a half or five miles from where I lived," Anne wrote. "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. Hahn's encouragement also was a driving force." She used the money she earned to help her family and also to buy herself broomstick skirts, saddle oxfords and a swing back coat that were popular at the time. After graduating from Mount Olive High School, she enrolled in North Carolina Central University, formerly 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 Charlene "Chuck" Corpening paid for her education with her nurse's salary. "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," Anne wrote. "I traveled by way of Trailways bus from Morganton, N.C., 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." She moved into the Annie Day Shephard Residence Hall, which was named for the wife of the school's former president. It was an especially tough adjustment. Anne 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. She left school for a semester and spent time working as a maid - an experience that sent her racing back to school determined to figure out a better way to make a living. Anne took the advice of an instructor who advised her to switch her major to library science - a move that she later was very pleased about. It was while attending summer school following her senior year that she met the late McKinley J.H. Armstrong. Armstrong, an NCC alum, back from the Korean Conflict was 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." An attractive couple, they spent many of their early dates enjoying North Carolina bar-b-q sandwiches and watching kids play softball. They slipped away quietly to marry on May 4, 1957 in a private ceremony. Their first home was in a rooming house in Southern Pines, N.C., where they taught at the same school. Anne would be in their tiny space at home and be able to hear McKinley's voice booming across the football field where he would be coaching. In June of 1961, they left North Carolina and headed north, settling briefly in Washington, D.C. and in Front Royal, Va., where they both had been hired to teach at Criser High School, an all-black school opened in 1959. They were among the instructors from historically black colleges recruited to teach the 300 students in grades one through 12. Anne and McKinley completed their family with the addition of twin girls while living in Front Royal. Anne took a year off after giving birth to Carolyn and Marilyn, but worked every year until retirement in the early 1990s. After finally settling in Washington, D.C., in the mid-1960s, she began working as an elementary school librarian at Watkins. Each fall, she would take pains making sure her libraries were inviting places. Her excitement would be palpable when it was time to implement the Reading is Fundamental program. Started in 1966 by a former teacher, the program provided underprivileged children with free books. Overseeing their distribution must have reminded Anne of her own days as a youngster wishing for more reading material. Meanwhile, Anne was a consummate mother who could get dinner on the table as fast as a short-order cook. She ran her household like a tight ship, with firm rules but with lots of love. She and McKinley made tremendous sacrifices to put five children through 12 years of Catholic school Together, they were a united force in raising their family. They also took care of each other. Their theme song was Kenny Rogers' "Islands in the Stream:" "That is what we are No one in between How can we be wrong Sail away with me To another world And we rely on each other, ah ha From one lover to another, ah ha... ." Anne retired from teaching in 1992 and spent many of her retirement years passing on her love of reading to her grandchildren. 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 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. As the years passed on, Anne luxuriated in quiet time at home and being with family. She collected Waterford crystal and favored pink roses, peonies, Coco Chanel cologne and shopping expeditions to Saks Fifth Avenue. Anne also enjoyed setting a beautiful table for parties and creating a nurturing environment for 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 often had a pot of collard greens simmering on a back burner. There always was enough for visitors who frequently stopped by. For the friends who couldn't make it, the telephone was Anne's way of staying connected. She was by the side of her loving soul mate of 53 years, when he passed from this life in February 2010. Diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma in 1992, she fought a good fight against the disease for two full decades before she made her own peaceful transition on April 16 at her home. In the days shortly before she died, she could look out the front window of her bedroom at a dogwood tree planted by McKinley years before. The sun shined brightly and the pink blossoms were in full bloom - something she always looked forward to each spring. Her family is grateful she lived to see them one last time. Anne was 77. 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 inlaws. A mass of Christian burial will take place Tuesday at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, at 12th and Monroe streets NE in Wash., D.C. 20017. Funeral services begin at 10 a.m. following a 9 a.m. viewing also at the church. Interment 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.