Official Obituary of
Vera Ivanovna Armstrong
May 31, 1916 ~ August 24, 2015 (age 99) 99 Years Old
Vera Armstrong Obituary
Vera Ivanovna Massuta Armstrong
May 31, 1916 ~ Aug. 24, 2015
Resident of Walnut Creek
Vera Ivanovna Massuta Armstrong born in Simonovka, Ukraine, to parents Ivan and Natalie Massuta,
While in high school, Vera showed athletic promise in track and field events.
She excelled at volleyball, and played on the Ukrainian womens' team, in addition, she held the Ukraine womens record for shot-putt and discus; in college, she was second in the USSR in those two events. Vera was selected to the 1940 USSR Olympics team but the invasion of China by Japan cancelled the games. The invasion of her country by Germany in the spring of 1941 brought her sports career to an end.
February 6, 1944, the German Army, now in full retreat from the Soviet Union, gathered together all the eighteen to forty year-old women of her town who were without children, as well as the men to the age of 60 for forced labor in Germany. She began a 600 kilometer march to Rumania. A German field hospital doctor accompanying her group learned that she had a degree in Physiotherapy and assigned her to work with the wounded German soldiers, thus providing her one meal a day. upon reaching Braila, Rumania, the hospital and staff were put into boxcars and taken to France.
Following D-Day, June 6, 1944, the hospital returned to Germany, leaving Vera behind. Her determination to return home brought her to the town of Ranshofen, upper Austria, then being occupied by U.S.. Army troops. Seeing some of them playing volleyball she asked if she might play too. It was there she met her husband-to-be, William (Bill) Armstrong. They married in Vienna July 12, 1946. a son, Thomas Church Armstrong, preceded her in death.
In 1947, Vera accompanied her young family to Berkeley, California and then the Diablo Valley where she was a successful tailor and designer. Her education afforded her an opportunity to teach physical education at Mount Diablo High school in Concord, California. She retired to enjoy a further career in porcelain painting where she won many awards for her skill.
She will be missed by her husband Bill, her daughter, Lubov Armstrong-Mazur (Michael Mazur, deceased), granddaughter Julia Helene (Christopher Eppstein), grandson Gregory Thomas Armstrong-Mazur, great-granddaughter Piper Marie Eppstein and great-grandson William Michael Eppstein. A link to the video, living history - Bill and Vera can be found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDkff0kJCG0
May 31, 1916 ~ Aug. 24, 2015
Resident of Walnut Creek
Vera Ivanovna Massuta Armstrong born in Simonovka, Ukraine, to parents Ivan and Natalie Massuta,
While in high school, Vera showed athletic promise in track and field events.
She excelled at volleyball, and played on the Ukrainian womens' team, in addition, she held the Ukraine womens record for shot-putt and discus; in college, she was second in the USSR in those two events. Vera was selected to the 1940 USSR Olympics team but the invasion of China by Japan cancelled the games. The invasion of her country by Germany in the spring of 1941 brought her sports career to an end.
February 6, 1944, the German Army, now in full retreat from the Soviet Union, gathered together all the eighteen to forty year-old women of her town who were without children, as well as the men to the age of 60 for forced labor in Germany. She began a 600 kilometer march to Rumania. A German field hospital doctor accompanying her group learned that she had a degree in Physiotherapy and assigned her to work with the wounded German soldiers, thus providing her one meal a day. upon reaching Braila, Rumania, the hospital and staff were put into boxcars and taken to France.
Following D-Day, June 6, 1944, the hospital returned to Germany, leaving Vera behind. Her determination to return home brought her to the town of Ranshofen, upper Austria, then being occupied by U.S.. Army troops. Seeing some of them playing volleyball she asked if she might play too. It was there she met her husband-to-be, William (Bill) Armstrong. They married in Vienna July 12, 1946. a son, Thomas Church Armstrong, preceded her in death.
In 1947, Vera accompanied her young family to Berkeley, California and then the Diablo Valley where she was a successful tailor and designer. Her education afforded her an opportunity to teach physical education at Mount Diablo High school in Concord, California. She retired to enjoy a further career in porcelain painting where she won many awards for her skill.
She will be missed by her husband Bill, her daughter, Lubov Armstrong-Mazur (Michael Mazur, deceased), granddaughter Julia Helene (Christopher Eppstein), grandson Gregory Thomas Armstrong-Mazur, great-granddaughter Piper Marie Eppstein and great-grandson William Michael Eppstein. A link to the video, living history - Bill and Vera can be found on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDkff0kJCG0
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