Wendy Kaley Armstrong

Wendy Kaley Armstrong was born in Wood River, Illinois, on June 6, 1950. She died peacefully in her sleep on November 02, 2024 on Saint Simons Island after a life well lived. She was preceded in death by her parents, Donald Charles Kaley and Eleanore Mae Force Kaley, and an older sister, Judith Kaley Hughes, all of Birmingham, AL, and a younger brother, Dean Kaley, of Pell City, AL.

She is survived by her husband, Edward S. Armstrong, Jr. of Saint Simons Island, GA; two sons: Patrick Nicholas Armstrong (Allison DeJong) of Chicago, IL, and Kevin Christopher Armstrong, of Atlanta, GA; one sister, Donna K. Jolly (Don (d.)) of Birmingham, AL; and one brother, Donald Charles Kaley (Jimmie Lou) of Remlap, AL; and many nieces and nephews and quite a few great nieces and nephews.

At the age of two, her family moved to Hearne, Texas. She was there until she was twelve years old and then her family moved to Birmingham, Alabama. She graduated from Erwin High School in 1968. She taught dancing, became a stewardess for Southern Airways for about a year, then returned to Birmingham, where she taught dancing again and became an office manager for a construction company.

She met her husband, Edward S. Armstrong, Jr., through her dancing acquaintances. They dated for five years and were married in 1975. She had two sons, Patrick and Kevin. In 1983, the family moved to Saint Simons Island, GA, where Ed was a legal instructor at the FLETC.

Wendy could dance, sing, write, paint, and draw exceptionally well, and was known to landscape, splice electronics, trouble-shoot others’ computer problems, and diagnose the occasional rare disease. She got along famously not only with the family’s dogs, but in her four decades on the Island also tamed feral cats, raised orphaned squirrels, befriended deer (one of whom would come when she called), and spoke to all the wilderness that happened upon her yard.

In addition to dancing, she played high school basketball, enjoyed golf, and for decades was a fierce competitor among those who played on the tennis courts of Sea Palms, where she organized multiple ongoing local women’s games. For much of the 1980s and 1990s, she organized and directed the Fifth Grade Play at St. Simons Elementary School, and did so specifically to ensure that every fifth grader had an opportunity to get onto the stage and shine. In the process she became known to a generation of Islanders simply as “Ms. Wendy.” She was very active at Island Players Theatre, primarily as a choreographer, but also as an actor, set designer, makeup artist, and many of the things that go along with the theater. Wendy loved working on the young peoples’ workshops in the summers and in the musicals in the fall, where she got to work and play with her two sons and with some of her closest friends. Wendy attended St. Williams Church.

Arrangements entrusted to Edo Miller and Sons Funeral Home. www.edomillerandsons.com