Gloria Faye Armstrong

Gloria Faye Armstrong of Phenix City, Alabama, passed from this life on September 19, 2022, after 73 years of devotion to her family, service to the church, and attentive care to hearts and minds in need of healing.

Gloria was born on December 24, 1948 to the late Oscar Seymour Armstrong and Mattie Ruth Chessor of Hickman County, Tennessee. An independent and inquisitive woman throughout her life, she was the first in her family to pursue advanced education, earning a Master of Psychology from Austin Peay State University and a Master of Divinity from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. For over fifty years, she worked as a mental health professional and pastoral leader: as Director of Counseling at Ninth and O Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky; as Minister of Education at both First Baptist Church and Lakewood Baptist Church in Phenix City, Alabama, and as a licensed professional counselor in Columbus, Georgia.

Gloria’s deep faith helped her endure a long struggle with type 1 diabetes; her many health crises, in turn, only strengthened her relationship with Christ. That relationship eventually led her into the Catholic Church, where she found a spiritual home during the last several years of her life.

Gloria will be remembered as a loyal friend and a warm, assuring presence in the life of everyone she met. She lavished affection on the five dogs that she adopted over the years; she loved three generations of nieces and nephews as if they were her own children and grandchildren.  

Gloria is preceded in death by her parents; two brothers, Elmo Armstrong and Joe Armstrong;  two sisters, Jessie Armstrong and Johnnie Ruth Denton; and her nephew Jeffery Denton. She is survived by her nieces Janice Brown, Jennifer Buchanan, and Lynn Robertson, as well as eight great-nieces and nephews and twelve great-great nieces and nephews.

A visitation will be held at Colonial Funeral Home in Phenix City on Thursday, September 22, 6:00-8:00 p.m., with a Rosary at 7:30 p.m. Gloria will be buried in her family cemetery in Hickman County, Tennessee at a later date..   

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