She was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and was graduated from Vassar College in 1949. In 1950, she married Tobin Armstrong and moved to Kenedy County, Texas. From 1966 to 1968, she was the vice chairman of the TexasRepublican Party. From 1971 to 1973, she was co-chairman of the Republican National Committee, and she was the keynote speaker at the 1972 Republican National Convention. (She was the first woman from either major party to keynote at a national convention.) In a Christmas dinner toast at the White House on Dec. 16, 1972, she "in one breath" praised "'Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace'" and Nixon as "the man who has done the most for peace in our history"; at the time, Nixon had given orders for the Christmas Bombing of North Vietnam.[1] Nixon named her as Counselor to the President on December 19, 1972, which she held from January 19, 1973 to November 1974 under President Ford.[2]
During her tenure as Counselor, Armstrong founded the first Office of Women's Programs in the White House,[3] predecessor to the current White House Council on Women and Girls. Fluent in Spanish, she was Nixon's liaison to Hispanic Americans and was a member of a Cabinet committee on opportunities for Spanish-speaking people.[3]
Armstrong died of cancer at a hospice in Houston in 2008. She is buried at Oakwood Cemetery, Austin, Texas.
References
^Weiner, Tim (2015). One Man Against the World: The Tragedy of Richard Nixon. (New York: Henry Holt and Company. New York: Henry Holt and Company. p. 222. ISBN978-1-62779-083-3.
^"Mayor Jim Reese of Odessa and the Republican Party in the Permian Basin", The West Texas Historical Association Year Book, Vol. LXXXVII (October 2011), p. 138