Charles Wrightsman Armistead (1920 - 2011)

Born 21 Dec 1920 in Shreveport, Caddo, Louisiana, United States

Ancestors

Husband of Barbara Kay (Durham) Armistead — married 11 Sep 1987 in Harrison County, Texas, USA

Died 20 Mar 2011 at age 90 in Shreveport, Caddo, Louisiana, United States

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Biography

Charles Wrightsman Armistead was born on 21 Dec 1920 in Shreveport, Caddo, Louisiana, United States, son of Jr William Wilchia Armistead (1882 - 1943) and Lilian M. (Willis) Armistead (1888 - 1969).

His siblings were:

1. William Wilchia Armistead III (1908 - 1960)
2. John Overton Armistead (~1909 - )
3. James Clinton Armistead (1910 - 1912)
4. Perry Willis Armistead (1914 - 1914)
5. Richard Winston Armistead (1915 - 1915)
6. Theus Nicholson Armistead (1916 - 1988)
7. Gerald Armistead (1918 - 1934)
8. Harper Fitzgerald Armistead (1922 - 1938)

Charles married Grace LaVerne Cryer (1930 - 2000) in Sep 1973.

Charles married Barbara Kay Durham (1945 - 2009) on 11 Sep 1987 in Harrison County, Texas, USA.^[1]

Charles died on 20 Mar 2011 in Shreveport aged 90.^[2]

Obituary

SHREVEPORT, LA - A Mass of Christian Burial for Dr. Charles Wrightsman Armistead will be at 10:00 a.m., Thursday, March 24, 2011, at St. Joseph Catholic Church in Shreveport. Officiating will be Father Karl Daigle. Interment will follow in Greenwood Cemetery, Stoner Avenue. A Prayer Vigil will be at 5:00 p.m. at Rose-Neath Marshall Street Chapel with visitation following until 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 23, 2011.

Dr. Armistead passed away Sunday, March 20, 2011, at Willis-Knighton Medical Center following a short illness. He was preceded in death by his parents, William Wilchia Armistead and Lillian Willis Armistead; maternal grandparents, Dr. James Clinton Willis, Sr., co-founder of Willis-Knighton Hospitals, and Martha Elizabeth Taylor Willis; paternal grandparents, William Wilchia Armistead and Rachel Theus Armistead (Cabin Pointe Plantation, Armistead, LA); brothers, Dr. William Wilchia Armistead, Jr., Dr. Theus Nicholson "Nooks" Armistead, Jonathon Perry Armistead, Jerry Taylor Armistead, and Richard Winston Armistead; daughter, Mary Margaret Armistead; grandson, Thomas Joseph Pistorius; first wife and his children's mother, Margaret Grigsby Armistead (d. 1973); second wife, Laverne Morgan Armistead; and third wife, Barbara Kay Cason Armistead.

He is survived by his son, Dr. Charles Wrightsman Armistead, Jr. of Mountain Home, AR; daughter, Anne Winston Armistead Pistorius of Shreveport, LA; sister, Martha Armistead McHale of Lake Charles, LA; daughter-in-law, Nancy Wray Armistead of Mountain Home, AR; grandchildren, Charles Wrightsman Armistead, III, Christopher Wray Armistead, Margaret Grace Armistead, and John George Armistead of Mountain Home, AR, and Rebecca Elizabeth and Sarah Margaret Pistorius of Shreveport, LA; great grandchildren, Audrey Michelle Haskins and Seth Thomas Saye of Shreveport, LA; nieces and nephews, John Francis McHale of Seattle, WA, Robert Michael McHale, II of Lake Charles, LA, Rachel McHale Feder of Singapore, Dr. Tobin H. Grigsby, Susan Grigsby Evans, and Francis Pollard "Bear" Grigsby all of Shreveport, LA, Scarlette Armistead Hobbes of Richmond, VA, Father Elias Armistead of Albany, GA, Diana Armistead of Ann Arbor, MI, Susan Armistead Guerin of Baton Rouge, LA, John Nicholson Armistead of Elm Grove, LA and William Clinton Armistead of Richmond, VA.

Dr. Armistead was born in Shreveport on December 21, 1920 and attended C.E. Byrd High School. He pitched for the Centenary Baseball Team, among whom he was affectionately known as "Finowski". He graduated Cum Laude from Centenary College of Louisiana in 1941 with a B.S. in Chemistry, where he was also an instructor in chemistry and physics. He was a member of the Kappa Alpha Order. Dr. Armistead graduated from LSU Medical School in New Orleans in 1944, doing his internship at New Orleans Charity Hospital and his residency in Psychiatry at New York University-Bellevue Medical Center and Baylor University, becoming Board Certified in Psychiatry five months before completing his residency. He served in the United States Army beginning in 1943, attaining the rank of Captain before leaving the military in 1947. He was an instructor in Physiology at LSU Medical School in New Orleans from 1947-1948. Dr. Armistead was a Psychiatric Consultant at the VA Medical Center from 1949 until 1998. He has been employed in the private practice of Psychiatry in Shreveport from 1957 until he entered the hospital in early March of this year. Dr. Armistead started the Electroencephalography Labs at Doctors Hospital, Bossier General, and St. Francis Hospital in Monroe. He has always had a strong interest in the Law and attended New York University Law School at night during his residency and after that the University of Houston Law School and night law school at Centenary College. He passed the Louisiana Bar Exam in 1963 and has continued as a member of the Louisiana Bar since that time. Dr. Armistead was the founder of Brentwood Hospital and original President of Brentwood, Inc., the original Brentwood having been not only the product of his inspiration, but also built on the site of his Irving Place home. Dr. Armistead held memberships in the American Psychiatric Association, the Louisiana Psychiatric Association, the Louisiana State Medical Society, the Shreveport Medical Society, the New York-Bellevue Psychiatric Society, the Louisiana Bar Association, and the Caddo Parish Sanity Commission, for which he often provided expert testimony.

Dr. Armistead truly loved his work, loved seeing patients, and greatly enjoyed the courtroom process and the study of law as well as of medicine. He was an avid golfer for much of his life and a member of Shreveport, East Ridge, and the Palmetto Country Clubs. He was also a private pilot and loved flying his Piper Cherokee and later his Mooney. He was a great lover of opera, particularly of Italian Opera, often sending his children to sleep at night with the strains of Verdi wafting upstairs. Dr. Armistead was devoted to his family and friends and had a pronounced optimism. He had a strong tendency to attribute good intentions to others, probably because his own were so good. He always did much more than expected, going far beyond "the call of duty."His loss is a profound one, and he will be deeply missed.

The family wishes to thank Drs. Frederick J. White, Seborn Woods, David Phillips, David Dies, and Mike Futrell, and the Fresenius (Ashley Ridge) staff, as well as Drs. Jani and McCoy, and the other physicians and medical professionals who attended Dr. Armistead during his time in Willis-Knighton.

Honoring Dr. Armistead, as pallbearers will be James Carmack, Thomas DeFatta, Thomas Veillon, Craig Storer, John McHale, and Michael McHale.^[3]

Sources

1. ↑ Texas, Marriage Index, 1824-2014
2. ↑ "United States Social Security Death Index," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:J5RZ-8WG : 12 January 2021), Charles W Armistead, 20 Mar 2011; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
3. ↑ "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV2X-XY36 : 10 August 2022), Charles Wrightsman Armistead, ; Burial, Shreveport, Caddo Parish, Louisiana, United States of America, Greenwood Cemetery; citing record ID 67315975, Find a Grave, http://www.findagrave.com.

• WW II Enlistment: "United States World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:K8GD-2HZ : 5 December 2014), Charles W Armistead, enlisted 09 Jun 1943, Shreveport, Louisiana, United States; citing "Electronic Army Serial Number Merged File, ca. 1938-1946," database, The National Archives: Access to Archival Databases (AAD) (http://aad.archives.gov : National Archives and Records Administration, 2002); NARA NAID 1263923, National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
• 1930 United States Federal Census
• 1940 United States Federal Census
• U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995
• U.S. Public Records Index, 1950-1993, Volume 1
• U.S., Obituary Collection, 1930-2017
• U.S., Social Security Death Index, 1935-2014