Allis Armstrong

On March 1, 2022, Allis Armstrong slipped away peacefully and was free from a body she no longer needed.

Her life began in Wentworth, MO, on Sept. 12, 1924, with her parents V.R. and Luna Pearl Stephens along with her older brother Gene, and later her younger brothers Sterling and Clyde. Allis went to school in Wentworth until the 10 ^th grade along with the many cousins of her mother's family. She then went to Sorento, IL, where her family had moved to help a cousin manage his farm, and she attended and graduated from Hillsboro Community High School. The Sorento area was where her ancestors had settled in the early 1800s, so she became acquainted with many of her Illinois cousins. After high school, Allis and a friend went to St Louis, MO, to attend the Business College for a Secretarial Course, followed by a brief career as secretary at the Murch Jarvis Construction Company and Royal Crown Cola.

On a cold night in Feb 1943, Allis and friend Mary went to Union Station to buy stationery, and while looking from the mezzanine at the soldiers transferring between trains saw a pair in short sleeved khakis. Four pairs of eyes met, and Allis and Jack spent a short time getting acquainted in the nearby Stationery shop. This was the beginning of a daily letter writing exchange which resulted in their marriage in September 1944, at the Santa Anna (CA) AAF Base.

After marriage, Allis was able to follow Jack to each of many AAF Bases where he was stationed around Texas and Colorado. She was always able to find employment at each new location, no matter how temporary the assignment, utilizing those skills learned at the Business School and her own exceptional work ethics.

After the war ended Allis and Jack returned to Putnam County where they started farming with his parents and then purchased land to the south of the Armstrong Farm in the Spring of 1946.  Allis was very active on the farm sewing most of her clothes, gardening, helping to raise the pet pig, chickens, cats, and their first baby boy in 1947, Kendall. Later in 1950 they had a second son, Lynn.

A few years later as weather conditions caused the loss of crop production, Allis and Jack along with Kendall and Lynn relocated to Kansas City in September 1954 where Jack began work with the U. S. Postal Service. Allis was busy raising the 2 boys and taking care of the home. In 1956 Allis and Jack welcomed a 3 ^rd son, Alan to the family.

By 1958 Allis and Jack with 3 boys moved to the Des Moines, IA, area when Jack was transferred to the Railway Clerk position operating between Des Moines and Moberly, MO.

In 1960 the family moved back to Putnam County where Jack became a rural route mail carrier and continued part time farming. In 1963 they built a new home on North 129 on their farm. There Allis took care of the home and large garden, preserving fruits and vegetables, continued using her secretarial and accounting knowledge to keep the farm records and prepare tax forms, and prepared plenty of good meals to feed the boys who helped on the farm with Jack, weeding corn and soybean fields, putting up hay, and tending to the cows.

After Jack retired from the Post Office in 1981, they continued to live on the farm, but they took time to travel around the county visiting many family and friends and making new friends wherever she was.  Allis very much enjoyed spending time with the close group of friends Jack had known since high school days, playing weekly card games, occasional trips to the Rathbun Country Music Theater as well as music and comedy shows in Branson, MO, and spending winters with several of their friends in Florida. For several winters she and Jack loaded up the car with all the flowers from Missouri that she would need for their winter garden in Lakeland, Florida. This long retirement period was very rewarding and produced many enjoyable memories of time shared with friends and family, viewing the many beautiful landscapes in Switzerland and from Canada to Mexico and west coast to east coast, and she often expressed gratitude for these years.

Allis loved growing vegetables and flowers as can easily be shown by all of the ribbons won at the annual Putnam County Fair. She was still canning at age 93, when she put up 100 quarts of green beans.

Allis was a very strong and busy member of the Unionville United Methodist Church. She taught Sunday School classes and helped with youth ministries; helped with community projects for cancer drives and hot meals; helped Jack with providing rides for those who needed to see doctors, and spending time visiting with folks in the care center. She created many beautiful quilts throughout the years. She quilted with both her mother and grandmother and her hand-stitching of the quilts will rival any machine-made quilt any day.

Allis was always grateful that she had the opportunity to travel as a young person and to be in St Louis on that fateful day in February, when she saw that handsome young AAF man in St Louis wearing only his short sleeved Sun Tan uniform on the cold February day in 1943, with whom she had shared almost 72 years of marriage. After a very fulfilling life Allis passed away peacefully, as she had hoped, leaving behind: her baby brother, Clyde Stephens (Kay) of Wentworth, MO; her sons: Kendall of Unionville, Lynn (Judy) of Klamath Falls, OR, Alan (LuAnn) of Shenandoah, IA; grandson Aaron Purser (Mandy Mayner) of Stayton, OR, granddaughter Alexis (Jordan) of Nebraska City, NE, grandson Jeff (Kady VanFossen) of Shenandoah, IA and many dear nieces, nephews and cousins.

We are grateful for the memories she left with us, and the abundance of memories in the form of the fruits of her labors while with us, and especially her spirit of patient and gentle loving-kindness which fills the absence of her physical presence. A memorial service for Allis will be held at the Unionville United Methodist Church on Saturday April 23 at 11 am. In lieu of flowers memorials may be made to the Unionville United Methodist Church, or the Unionville Cemetery, Mendota Cemetery, or Thompson Cemetery.