Wendy Armstrong
Wendy Patrice Damark Armstrong died at home on Nov. 22, the day before Thanksgiving, of respiratory failure as the result of stage 4 cancer, which had been diagnosed in late August 2017. She was 61 years old.
Over the years, Ms. Armstrong worked at the Damark family deli on Three Mile Harbor Road in East Hampton. She eventually became the principal clerk-typist at the East Hampton Middle School, remaining in the job for the rest of her life.
She was born on Dec. 11, 1956, at Southampton Hospital, the only daughter of the five children of the former Irma Ann Hasselberger and Allen Damark.
She grew up at her parents’ house on Maple Lane in East Hampton and attended Most Holy Trinity Catholic School for the early grades, graduating from East Hampton High School with the class of 1974.
As a young woman in high school, Ms. Armstrong worked briefly at an East Hampton restaurant called Spring Close House and then, in the late 1970s, at Eastern Seafood, where the East Hampton restaurant Serafina is today.
Ms. Armstrong attended a junior college in Boston, considering a degree in architecture, but instead went to work as a travel agent, first with American Airlines in New York City and then with East Hampton Travel. It was one of her favorite jobs ever, her son Tyler, who survives, said. She helped her mother, Irma Damark, run Damark’s Deli until her brother Bruce Damark took charge.
At that point, she worked again briefly as a travel agent but given the effects of the internet took a job at the East Hampton Middle School, going from paraprofessional to principal clerk-typist, a level second only to principal, her son Tyler said.
“She loved working in the office there with the principal, Charlie Soriano. She always enjoyed numbers and math, and working with all the kids there, who loved her immensely,” he said. Michel Wirth, a lifelong friend, said, “She had the ability to always root for the underdog and would take on the student that had been given up on.”
She and Grattan Vincent Armstrong, a custom carpenter, were married in the late 1970s. They went to live in Monterey, Calif., returning after 10 years to East Hampton, where they designed and built a house on Talkhouse Walk with the help of Ms. Armstrong’s brother Allen Damark and Forbes Riva, a friend. Mr. Armstrong died in 1993 and in 1998 she married Todd Cunningham. They separated in 2011.
Tyler Armstrong remembers his mother as a Cub Scout den leader and said that in addition to teaching and helping children she enjoyed photography, traveling, cooking, and going to the beach. He said she “loved my dad and my brother and me beyond what anyone could imagine. She was the best mom anyone could ask for.”
Another son, Evan Armstrong of Maryland, survives, as do four brothers, Allen Damark, Bruce Damark, and Brian Damark, all of East Hampton, and John Damark of New Orleans. Two nieces and two nephews survive as well.
The family received visitors at the Yardley and Pino Funeral Home in East Hampton the week after she died. They plan a memorial service in the spring or early summer.
Memorial donations can be sent to the Wendy Armstrong Memorial Fund, c/o Alyson Rogoski, East Hampton Middle School 76 Newtown Lane, East Hampton 11937. Checks should be made out to Student Activities.