Howard "Louie Bluie" Armstrong was born on March 4, 1909, in Dayton, Tennessee, to Daisy and Thomas Armstrong. Armstrong's great-grandfather was a slave owner, and his grandparents were slaves. His father, a gifted musician, artist and preacher, worked as a furnace man at the LaFollette Iron and Coal Company in eastern Tennessee to support his wife and nine children. He taught his children to play a variety of musical instruments, and Armstrong learned to play the mandolin, fiddle and guitar, among others. Armstrong had a gift for languages and learned to speak Italian, German, Polish and Spanish from the European immigrants working at the blast furnace. It was during his childhood that Armstrong also started drawing and painting, using homemade paints and brushes.
As a teenager Armstrong played blues, country, Tin Pan Alley, hokum and ragtime with his brothers in local bands, and in 1929 he recorded with bluesman Sleepy John Estes and string band leader Yank Rachell. With Ted Bogan and Carl Martin he formed the Martin, Bogan & Armstrong trio and in 1933 they migrated north to Chicago, performing at the World's Fair, working as street musicians and recording music.
After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Armstrong worked as an assembly-line spot welder for the Chrysler Corporation in Detroit to support his family. After he retired in 1971, the Martin, Bogan & Armstrong trio reunited, performing and recording several albums throughout the decade until Martin's death in 1979.
Armstrong is fluent in seven languages and can play twenty-two different instruments. He is the subject of two documentary films,
Armstrong lived in Boston with his wife, Barbara Ward, a sculptor. He died at age ninety-six on July 30, 2003.
Biographical Note by The HistoryMakers®
This life oral history interview with Howard Armstrong was conducted by Larry Crowe on 2003-04-12 in The Piano Factory, Boston, Massachusetts and is recorded on 7 30-minute Betacam SP videocassettes. Access copies exist on Betacam SP, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1. The interview contains information on (COMPLETE ONE SENTENCE DESCRIPTION OF INTERVIEW). Accompanying materials in the collection include Howard Armstrong's correspondence with The HistoryMakers® related to the interview; a copy of the signed release form and the production report; the biographical information used by the interviewer to prepare for the interview (DETAILS); paper copies of the interview transcripts, 3 1/2" floppy disks with electronic copies of the transcripts; selected quotes for video clips; photocopies of photographs captured on video; XML files with metadata created in editing and cataloguing the interview for The HistoryMakers Digital Video Library; and paper copies of these XML files.
Accompanying materials: Accompanying materials are filed in (NUMBER) folders in a half-Hollinger box and shelved at The HistoryMakers® Archives and Collection Library by accession number, separately from the videos.
This record series is indexed under the following controlled access terms.
Access to paper records is restricted. Other restrictions may be applied on a case-by-case basis.
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Betacam, VHS, DVD and MPEG-1 access copies are held for in-house use at The HistoryMakers®; Betacam SP, VHS and DVD playback hardware is provided for in-house viewing of the access copies; MPEG-1 copies are searchable and viewable via a digital video database.
The HistoryMakers® Video Oral History Interview with Howard Armstrong, April 12, 2003. The HistoryMakers® African American Video Oral History Collection, 1900 S. Michigan Avenue Chicago, Illinois.