Cecil Leroy Armstrong, 84, of Olney Springs, Colo., died Sunday, July 6, 2008, in care of loving family and the nursing staff of AVRMC Nursing Center East in La Junta, Colo.

Born June 11, 1924 in Ordway to Vernia Maxwell Armstrong and Pearl Masoner Armstrong, he was the youngest son in a family of ten children.

Cecil was a proud native of Crowley County and the dryland prairie community of Antelope Mesa where his parents and family had settled as pioneer homesteaders in 1915. The Antelope Mesa School was the focal point of childhood life for Cecil and the center of the community. He enjoyed sharing memories from the early days of Crowley County and life on the dryland.

He was member of the local 4-H club as a youth and it was at 4-H club meetings that he met his beloved wife, Mary Katherine Norton. The two were married on August 21, 1944 in Raton, New Mexico, sharing 64 years of love and life and hard work.

During married life the Armstrong’s called four different farms and ranches their home. As a rancher and farmer many cows were milked, calves branded with the CA brand, and feed crops grown and trucked. As a loving husband and father he and Katy raised three children and in later life he enjoyed grandkids coming to stay at the farm. Even after turning over active ranching and farming to younger hands he remained very interested in agriculture and was always a willing source of seasoned advice.
He was preceded in death by his parents, V. M and Pearl Armstrong, brothers, Robert, Floyd and Max; sisters, Dorothy Richardson, Elizabeth Armstrong and Faye Barber.

He is survived by his wife Katy of the family farm in Olney Springs; children, Audrey (Bill) Varner, La Junta, Roy (Beverly) Armstrong, La Junta and Robert (Rita) Armstrong, Olney Springs; grandchildren, Tracie Jones, Tim Varner, Aaron Armstrong, Amber Armstrong, Kara Hinkhouse, Anna Armstrong and Adam Armstrong; great-grandchildren, Hanna Jones and Zach Jones; sisters, Marge Heidt, Ethel Stamps and Gladys Freeman and an extended family of Armstrong’s and Norton’s.

Cremation is planned with arrangements prepared by Griffy Family Funeral Home, Fowler, Colo. The family plans a private memorial service for a future date. The family requests memorial donations be made to the Crowley Heritage Center, P.O. Box 24, Crowley, CO, 81033.