In Memory

Mr. McKinley Armstrong (Physical Education Teacher)

Mckinley Armstrong
 

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Mckinley J.H. Armstrong, a championship-winning basketball coach and long-time athletic director/physical education teacher, died Thursday in Washington. He was 81.

A veteran of the Korean Conflict and a 1951 graduate of North Carolina Central University, Armstrong was born in Winston Salem on August 5, 1928 to Charles E. and Lula Belle Armstrong. His family moved to High Point when he was 3-years-old.After graduating from William Penn High School in 1958, he attended Central, an historically black college in Durham, N.C., where he played on the football team, was a drummer in the marching band and pledged Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity. After obtaining his bachelors degree, he served in the Korean War as a sergeant in the United States Army before embarking on a teaching career. He later got his masters in education from George Washington University and did further study at the University of California, Los Angeles, University of Michigan and University of Virginia.

Armstrong settled in the Washington area in 1965 and quickly became a force to be reckoned with in D.C. basketball circles. Under his leadership, the Mckinley Tech Trainers dominated area basketball throughout the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Even before arriving in D.C., Armstrong had been on a winning streak.

Before Armstrong arrived in Washington D.C., he worked in Front Royal, Va., at a small racially segregated black school called Criser High School, which was built in 1959 to keep blacks out of Warren County High School. While there, he transformed a sports program that had been in its infancy into one that was respected throughout Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley.

Armstrong had had a similar impact on a small, similarly segregated school in Southern Pines, N.C., formerly called West Southern Pines School where he taught a little bit of everything. He wrote the official school song, coached the football as well as the boys and girls basketball teams. For three straight years beginning in 1957, he took the men’s basketball team to the state championships while imparting important life lessons along the way.

A long-time resident of Washington, D.C., Armstrong was a regular at early services at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church.

A consummate family man, he is survived by his wife of 52 years, Annie C. Armstrong; five children – Chip Armstrong of Washington, D.C., Jenice Armstrong Turner of Burlington, N.J, Cheryl A. Capers of Dublin, Ohio, Carolyn Armstrong of Washington, D.C. and Marilyn Armstrong of Washington, D.C.; three siblings, Charles Armstrong of Oxon Hill, Louise Powell of Durham, N.C., and Georgia Bass of Temple Hills; five grandchildren; two sons-in-laws Dr. Quinn Capers IV and Cameron Turner, many loving inlaws as well nieces and nephews.

A mass of Christian burial will take place Saturday (Feb. 20) at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, at 12th and Monroe streets NE in Washington, D.C., which he attended regularly. The funeral begins 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.

Source: The High Point Enterprise

 

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MCKINLEY J. H. ARMSTRONG (Age 81) On February 11, 2010, a beloved father, educator and basketball coach, passed away while surrounded by his family. As McKinley J. H. Armstrong and his wife, Annie, of 53 years, raised their family, he led the basketball team at McKinley Tech. to dominance. Armstrong served his country in the Army during the Korean War. He graduated from North Carolina Central University and obtained a Masters Degree in education from George Washington. A lifetime member of Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity, he made time for golf and fishing. He is survived by his wife, Annie C. Armstrong, his children Chip Armstrong, Jenice Armstrong Turner and her husband, Cameron, Cheryl Armstrong Capers and her husband, Dr. Quinn Capers IV, Carolyn Armstrong and Marilyn Armstrong; siblings, Charles Armstrong, Louise Powell and Georgia Bass; five grandchildren, and many loving family members. Please honor us with your presence at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, 1029 Monroe St. N.E., Washington, DC 20017 on Saturday, February 20 from 9 a.m. until time of Funeral Mass at 10 a.m. Interment Fort Lincoln Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in his memory to St. Anthony''s. Arrangements entrusted to Gasch''s Funeral Home, P.A., Hyattsville, MD. www.gaschs.com

Published in The Washington Post on February 18, 2010

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