Shirley W. Armstrong

Shirley was born on January 28, 1928, to Stanley F. Wood and Edith M. (Mattason) Wood in Tyrone, New York. She joined siblings June, Loren and Jack. After Shirley were siblings Betty, Richard, Roger and Raymond.

Shirley went to elementary school in Wayne, New York and later graduated from Hammondsport New York High School. Then she trained in nursing at Binghamton City Hospital and worked in the infectious disease ward until adventure and new experiences called her to join the United States Army. She completed her Army training in San Antonio, Texas and was sent for duty at Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Colorado. She took care of wounded and sick GIs from 1951 to 1955. It was at Fitzsimons that she met a handsome young patient from the Air Force who she would fall in love with and be married to for almost 70 years.

Norval W. Armstrong and Shirley welcomed Cindy, Rick and Lauren into the world in Aurora , Colorado before transferring to Scottsdale, Arizona for Norval’s career. Shirley stayed home when the children were young and later felt the call to return to nursing. She had a long and distinguished career at Scottsdale Memorial Hospital retiring in the mid 90’s.

Shirley learned to cook at her mother’s side, and she was known for her cookies and pies, especially her rhubarb pie. She was an avid reader with a stack of books at her side and a library card poised and ready to get another batch.

Over the years she was trusted to provide medical advice and sometimes aid to her friends and neighbors. She helped when she could but her most often given advice was encouraging the person to call their doctor.

Shirley and Norval built a house at Horse Butte near West Yellowstone in 1993 which would begin as a summer home and later their full time residence. They loved their Horse Butte friends and the West Yellowstone community. Shirley didn’t like the winters much, but she almost always went along with Norval’s projects including their last 30 years in Montana.

Shirley is survived by her children, sister Betty, grandsons – Mike (Natalie) and Nick (Ciarra), and seven great children. She is also survived by her nieces and nephews and their children.

Preceding her was her husband Norval and her beloved grandson Richard Bryce as well as many others as she lived over 96 years.

Shirley took care of her family with generous doses of advice, compassion, reality checks, discipline, food and mostly love. Her last years were tough as she lost her vision to Macular Degeneration, and she lost her ability to read. She still made a great pie and yummy cookies until the end. If you would like to honor her memory - bake a pie, make some fudge or a batch of cookies or just do something to make someone’s day better. She did those things often.

No services will be held but if you read this, call someone who knew Shirley and remember her.