Anne Armstrong
December 27, 1927–July 30, 2008
Once, when asked about her many achievements, the politician, diplomat, and rancher Anne Armstrong explained, "I was born with energy."
That energy spurred Armstrong to become a woman of many "firsts": first female co-chair of the Republican National Committee, first female counselor to a U.S. president, and first woman to chair the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board.
Armstrong is so closely associated with Texas that it’s easy to forget that she was born in New Orleans. In the 1950s, after marrying cattleman Tobin Armstrong, she moved to South Texas and became active in local politics, while also raising five children and helping to run her husband’s Kenedy County ranch.
Armstrong became co-chair of the RNC in 1971. The next year, she became the first woman to give the keynote address at a national party convention. While serving as a cabinet-level Counsellor to President Nixon, Armstrong created the White House Office of Women’s Programs.
She later became Counsellor to President Ford, who appointed her ambassador to Great Britain.
Armstrong was a beacon to many women who aspired to public service, including Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison, who described Armstrong as her "greatest mentor for thirty years."
Armstrong maintained strong ties to South Texas throughout her distinguished career. When she died in 2008 at the age of eighty, she was a sitting member of the Kenedy County Commission.
For More about Anne Armstrong
The Anne Armstrong Papers, White House Central Files, 1970–1974, are held in the Richard Nixon Presidential Library and Museum. The files reflect Armstrong’s responsibilities as counselor to the president, first head of the Office of Women’s Programs, and member of the Cost of Living Council, the Bicentennial Commission, and the Domestic Council.
On June 23, 1987, President Reagan presented Anne Armstrong with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian award. The American Presidency Project at the University of California Santa Barbara has published Reagan’s remarks from the award ceremony online.
Selected Bibliography
Barta, C. "Sissy, Anne hooked on politics." Dallas Morning News, July 15, 1973.
Bryce, Robert. Cronies: Oil, the Bushes, and the Rise of Texas, America’s Superstate. New York: PublicAffairs, 2004.
Grimes, William. "Anne Armstrong, Presidential Adviser and Pioneering Politician, Dies at 80." New York Times, July 31, 2008.
Hutchison, Kay Bailey. American Heroines: The Spirited Women Who Shaped Our Country. New York: William Morrow, 2004.
Knaggs, John R. Two-Party Texas: The John Tower Era, 1961–1984. Austin: Eakin Press, 1985.
Martin, Janet M. The Presidency and Women: Promise, Performance, and Illusion. College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2003.
Scharrer, Gary. "Anne Armstrong Dies in Houston, Helped Build Texas GOP." Houston Chronicle, July 30, 2008.
Wilcox, Robert. "Anne Armstrong: Former U.S. Ambassador and Kenedy County Commissioner Dies at 80." Raymondville Chronicle, August 6, 2008.
Spanish Translation
Download the Spanish translation of this Texas Originals script.
Portrait of Anne Armstrong, 1973.
President Ronald Reagan and Anne Armstrong talking during a meeting with the President's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board in the White House Cabinet Room. Reagan White House Photographs, National Archives.