Mary Trageser Armstrong

Mary is survived by her devoted husband of 67 years John E Armstrong, Jr.; beloved mother of William A. Armstrong and his wife Leticia, John E. Armstrong III, and his wife Mary, Robert E. Armstrong and his wife Judith, and Michael T. Armstrong and his wife Helen; Dear sister to James A Trageser; Loving grandmother to Joanne Manzo, Russell Armstrong and his wife Kaitlyn, William Armstrong Jr. and his wife Colleen, Kelly Kiddy and her husband Trevor, Christina Armstrong, Julia Armstrong, James Armstrong and his wife Marie, Megan Ducharme and her husband Kyle, Jennifer Armstrong, Abigail O’Neil and her husband Nolan, and Lucille Armstrong; Cherished great-grandmother to Jack, Joe, Cam, and Corbin, Brooks, Wells, Simms, Auggie, Bobby and Audrey.

A visitation for Mary Armstrong will be held Thursday, March 23, 2023, from 3:30 PM to 6:00 PM at Lemmon Funeral Home, 10 West Padonia Road, Timonium, Maryland 21093

A funeral mass will be held Friday, March 24, 2023, at St. Joseph Parish Catholic Church at 10:00 AM.

A memorial luncheon immediately following the funeral mass at Mercy Ridge Retirement Community in the Dulaney Room, 2525 Pot Spring Road, Timonium, MD 21093

Interment Private.

Mary graduated from Catholic High School in 1948 and worked for C&P Telephone from 1950 to 1956. She met a GI, Jack Armstrong, returning from the Korean War and soon left the phone company to become his wife, and mother to their four boys, an adventure that would span the next 67 years.

Their life together started in a small house on Loch Hill Road in Baltimore. Mary raised their boys with help from her mother-in-law, Lucille (Mamaw to the boys), and her brother, Roy (Unc as the boys knew him), while Jack supported the family by partnering in a new company, Electronic Modules Corporation (EMC) for which he traveled often. Many wonderful memories are rooted in that house. Mary kept control of her boys with firm discipline, an endless supply of love, and instilling in the boys the knowledge that grievous transgressions would result in additional firm discipline being dispensed “when your father gets home!”

Family vacations were most often spent in Ocean City, the place Mary loved for the long lazy days on the beach, nights on the boardwalk eating ice cream, time with her siblings’ families, and other families that vacationed in Ocean City at the same time we did. Two weeks at the beach every year helped Mary hold on to her sanity the rest of the year in a house full of men.

As Jack’s business grew, it expanded and moved to a new industrial park in Hunt Valley. Jack and Mary moved their boys to a nearby house in Cockeysville and raised them through their school years. Mary volunteered at the boys’ schools often, most notably by making many gallons of spaghetti sauce for the annual spaghetti dinner fundraiser at Dulaney HS. Her love for the boys carried them through the peaks and valleys of their teenage years.

Mary, Jack, and the boys became friends with two families in the Cockeysville area who enjoyed camping. One epic camping trip took the three families 1000 miles over three days to get to Disney World in Florida, campers in tow. Stories from that trip are still told to this day.

While in Cockeysville the family gained a new member, a miniature schnauzer named Shatzy, that was ostensibly for the boys but as everyone knew was really Mary’s. Shatzy didn’t pay much attention to the boys and was fiercely protective of Mary. No other dog could set paw on her property, and none of the boys could sneak up on Mary without Shatzy baring her teeth and chasing them out of the room.

After the boys moved out and found their partners, and Jack retired from his very successful business, Mary and Jack built their dream home on Brook Farm Court, with a pool and a large plot of land. The pool was a favorite destination for their boys, daughters-in-law, and an expanding group of grandchildren. Mary hosted many parties in their house for family and friends with Jack manning the grill. Crab feasts were a common occurrence there, with Mary preferring crabs of the soft-shelled variety. Mom and Dad also bought a condo in the Antigua, and later built a vacation home in Ocean Pines, both at the beach that Mom loved so much.

Family trips were a hallmark for the Armstrong family. The pinnacle of family trips, and source of great pride for Mary and Jack, originated from their condo in Belmont Forest. Mary and Jack, their sons and daughters-in-law, and 11 grandkids, 21 in all, got on a bus, drove to Philadelphia, and boarded a cruise ship bound for Bermuda. Stories from that trip are still told to this day.

As age crept up on Mary and Jack, they made their way, like many of their friends, to a retirement community in Timonium. Shannon House at Mercy Ridge became their new home. There, Mary took up bocce ball with Jack and they were a force to be reconned with due in part to the many years they shared bowling duckpins. Mary enjoyed renewing old friendships, making new friends, and genuinely thrived in her new home. She worked on her cross-stitch blankets, crossword puzzles, played and taught canasta, and was an avid reader, sharing books with friends throughout the community.

Mary loved the Baltimore Colts and Birds from way back. She and Jack loved to listen to the games on the radio. She was heartbroken when Colts snuck away, but with expansion she got a new team to love, the Ravens.

Mary could have made a fortune betting on football games. Some weekends during football season she would pick 13 winners of 15 games. Her reasons for picking the winners might be because she liked the QB, or the color of the team’s uniform. Unorthodox, but effective. Mary also enjoyed the horses, betting on the triple crown races with her sons. She was also the keeper of all important family dates. Birthdays, anniversaries, you didn’t bet against Mary’s memory for dates.

Mary was very active at St Joseph’s Church. She counted money each week with friends, and she and Jack donated one of the stained-glass windows for the church’s renovation.

We will all miss Mary, wife, mother, mother-in-law, sister, sister-in-law, grandmother, great-grandmother, friend.