Shirley Armstrong Hall, a Baltimore County Schools principal who issued World War II news reports to downtown shoppers, died of congestive heart failure July 15 at the Maples of Stoneleigh, an assisted living facility. She was 100 and lived in Towson.
Born in Baltimore County and raised in Lansdowne, she was the daughter of Helen Barrett Armstrong, a Stewart’s department store supervisor, and George Seymour Armstrong, a Baltimore and Ohio Railroad worker.
A 1940 graduate of Catonsville High School, she earned a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree from the University of Maryland, College Park, and a liberal arts master’s degree from the Johns Hopkins University in 1975.
She was a longtime Kappa Delta sorority member and past president of its alumnae association.
Shirley Armstrong Hall was invited to the White House for several 50th anniversary World War II ceremonies. (Handout)
In her published memoir, “The Lost Years,” she recalled hearing the news of the bombing of Pearl Harbor while a student at College Park.
A volunteer for wartime work, she spent a summer at the old Glenn L. Martin plant at Middle River and taught English as a second language to Mexican workers brought to the United States as Pennsylvania Railroad wartime workers.
Because of wartime gas rationing she arrived at her senior prom at Washington’s Willard Hotel on a chartered streetcar, she wrote.
After graduation, she joined the advertising staff of the old Hochschild, Kohn department store, which encouraged shoppers at its Howard and Lexington streets headquarters to buy wartime bonds in support of the military effort.
“Every week or so the store had a Bond Rally before work with music, local celebrities and a pep talk about buying U.S. Savings Bonds. … I was asked to be the newscaster in the window,” she wrote. “It wasn’t exactly CNN, but the newsroom displayed large maps of the European and Asian Theaters of Operation, a working Teletype machine, and a desk with a microphone. The Teletype chugged, clanged, and spit out news stories on a continuous sheet of yellow paper.
“As a crowd gathered on the sidewalk outside the window, I tore off the latest story and read it over the mic.
“One of my most difficult stints as a newscaster was during the December, 1944 Battle of the Bulge in Europe. The Allies’ and particularly America’s losses were devastating. We were losing the battle that continued for days, and I think my audience and I reached the conclusion that winning the war was far from a sure thing,” she wrote.
While at the store she was selected to model professional women’s attire for Harper’s Bazaar magazine.
“She had a sunny personality,” said her daughter, Paige Coleman Sober. “She was absolutely brilliant and retained everything. She had an eye for fashion and colors.”
She joined the Baltimore County Department of Education and taught at Lansdowne Elementary School before joining the faculty of the newly opened Hampton Elementary in 1957.
She went on to be vice principal at Cockeysville Elementary in Cockeysville, principal at Pot Spring Elementary in Timonium, and principal at Padonia Elementary in Cockeysville. She retired in 1983.
“My mother was innovative. In 1957, as a fifth grade teacher at the brand-new Hampton Elementary, she arranged a short plane trip to Washington, D.C., where the class visited the Smithsonian Institution and the National Gallery of Art. Their class left from what was called Friendship Airport and flew to National Airport in Arlington.”
At Padonia Elementary, she was told to bring harmony to the school where families moved frequently and some students arrived speaking no English.
Her daughter said Mrs. Hall broke through students’ anxiety one day when a boy brought a live snake to class for show-and-tell.
“She held the snake and was not afraid of it,” her daughter said. “It did the trick.”
“My mother capitalized on the diversity of the community, and the American-born students’ lives were enriched through the association with the children from the many different cultures,” her daughter said.
Her marriage to John Arnold Coleman Sr. in 1946 ended in divorce. She then married Joseph Adrian Hall, a World War II veteran who served in the Persian Gulf.
She and her husband attended Persian Gulf command reunions and were invited to the White House for several 50th anniversary World War II ceremonies.
“My mother traveled the globe extensively to her dream destinations: Nicaragua, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Peru, Chile, Rapa Nui, New Zealand, Australia, China, Jordan, Egypt, Kenya, South Africa, France and Britain,” her daughter said.
Survivors include her daughter, Paige Coleman Sober, of Encino, California; and three cousins, Burke Barrett, of Catonsville, Donn Barrett, of Kensington, and Bruce Barrett, of Bishopville.
Her husband, Joseph Adrian Hall died in 2000. Her son, John Arnold Coleman Jr., died in 2021.
Private services will be held at Arlington National Cemetery.