Murray Armstrong's Widow Passes Away

According to Mike Chambers Blog, Freda Armstrong, the wife of late DU hockey coach Murray “Chief” Armstrong, died of heart failure on Thursday. The former Freda Hosler, known to everyone as Sis, was 97.

Murray and Freda met in Syracuse in 1936, while Murray was the leading scorer in the AHL for the Syracuse Stars.  A young woman with a job in a nearby loan company found the nerve to strike up a conversation with Murray. She was accompanied by a co-worker. Murray perked up when he saw the friend. He asked her to go dancing at the Hotel Syracuse and the rest is history.

Their wedding reception was at a downtown Syracuse restaurant. In an interview 16 years ago, Murray said that marrying Freda “was the best move I ever made.”  

Murray and Freda were married for 68 years.  From 1956 until 1977 they lived in Denver, while Murray coached the Pioneers to five National Championships.

The couple retired to Florida in 1977 and played golf together regularly. 

Murray passed away in December, 2010.

They are survived by their son Rob who has written five books, including three on golf in Ireland. Now retired, he was an award-winning commentator at CBS and teaches communications twice a week at Flagler College.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very common for the trailing spouse in 60+ year marriages to pass away within a few months of the first spouse's death. 97 years is a great run. We should all be so lucky.

Well done and RIP.

UDenver20 said...

Well said...

dusince59 said...

They are together forever. Nothing could be better

miller said...

I had the pleasure of meeting both of them many years ago. They were lovely people and you could see the love that they had for each other.

They will be in our hearts forever.