Recalling a friend and humanitarian

Friends and family mourn the loss of a founding member of the Cranbury Housing Associates.

By: Josh Appelbaum
   Her beautiful voice, colorful personality and respect for humanity are what friends remember about Rachel Conner Armstrong, 84, who died Feb. 26.
   Born and raised in Sedan, Kan., she was a resident of Cranbury for more than 30 years before moving in the early 1980s back to the house she grew up in.
   Ms. Armstrong was a founding member of Cranbury Housing Associates, which began in 1963 as a group of citizens who wanted to improve and provide for the housing needs of disadvantaged residents after a fire in September of that year left 12 migrant workers without a home.
   She also was active with Cranbury Landmarks, which led a successful effort to save the Old School building in the mid-1970s. The building is now Town Hall.
   In the late 1950s and 1960s, Ms. Armstrong sang mezzo-soprano under Nicholas Harshanyi’s direction with the Princeton Symphony Orchestra in the Verdi Requiem. She sang in the Westminster Choir and was a soloist in the Roger Sessions opera "Lucullus."
   Friends in Cranbury admired Ms. Armstrong’s dedication to humanitarian causes, including her involvement with Princeton Family Services, and programs through CHA designed to enrich the lives of migrant workers while they were employed in Cranbury.
   Mahbubeh Stave, a friend of Ms. Armstrong’s, said she worked extensively with migrant workers who came to Cranbury each year from Florida.
   "She accomplished a lot in town and was always very down-to-earth," Ms. Stave said. "She was an educated person who valued humanity and was a great leader for Cranbury Housing Associates."
   Ms. Stave said Ms. Armstrong went well beyond her duties as a board member for CHA, extending programs from Princeton Family Services to migrants.
   "She was always there to help people, and she’d do things like take the workers to doctors when they needed (medical attention)," Ms. Stave said.
   Stanley Todd, a former neighbor of Ms. Armstrong on Station Road and a former CHA board member who currently lives in Princeton, said she worked to establish a clothing store for workers through a grant she secured with Princeton Family Services.
   Mr. Todd said Ms. Armstrong seized the opportunity, the early 1960s, when the public was more aware of migrant worker issues because of Edward R. Murrow’s CBS documentary titled "Harvest of Shame," that detailed the hardships of families in migrant worker camps.
   "She really stimulated interest in the issue, and got people to think about it and organized them to act," Mr. Todd said.
   He said Ms. Armstrong also brought some cultural enrichment to migrant workers, showing films on Saturday evenings in the summer.
   "She took movies out to the migrant worker camps and it was a tough scene some of the time," Mr. Todd said. "A lot of the laborers were dead drunk by that point, but a lot of people were very appreciative of her efforts."
   Mr. Todd also said Ms. Armstrong worked tirelessly with Ms. Stave, Barbara Thompson and Katherine Shankweiler to preserve the Old School building.
   In 1971, the school was put on the state and national Register of Historic Places. Landmarks took over the building in 1973, and began filling it with tenants, including Princeton Ballet and the Board of Education. The Old School was renovated in 2000 and became Town Hall.
   Aside from community involvement, Ms. Armstrong had a distinguished singing career, and was known in the opera circles of Princeton and Philadelphia, where she worked with several professional companies and orchestras.
   With Mr. Harshanyi, who also founded the Princeton Chamber Orchestra, she performed the first known opera, Monteverdi’s "Trancredi et Clorinda," in which she sang the central role. It was performed at McCarter Theatre and in Philadelphia’s Philharmonic Hall.
   She was known in the Princeton Music Club for the unusual and difficult music she would bring to the group.
   She sang with the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Princeton and was a member of the Family Service Board in Princeton. She is survived by her husband, Don Armstrong of Sedan.