Henry Armstrong date of birth
Henry Armstrong date of birth
I wrote this for Boxing News and it was published last week, so I'd now like to offer it as evidence that Henry Armstrong's year of birth should be changed from 1912 to 1909. I'd assumed he was born 12 December 1912. This was what he said himself, not least in his autobiography, Gloves Glory and God. However, I was looking at his life & career and discovered he was wrong. In Gloves, Glory and God Henry says his parents were Henry and America Jackson, his eldest brothers were Ollus and Oscar and the sister immediately above, a year or two older than him was Henrietta. He was born on a farm near Columbus, Missisippi, and the family moved to St Louis when he was a child. I found them in St Louis on the 1920 census and to get more information about the family I checked the 1910 census for Lowndes County, Mississippi, the area around Columbus. I was amazed to find the census, taken on 2nd May 1910, includes parents Henry & America, Ollus (18), Oscar (17), Lucinda, Andrew, Freeman, two-year-old Henrietta - and four month old Henry! This ties in with a birth day of 12th December - but 1909 and not 1912. And that in turn changes the perspective on his whole career. He was 27, not 24, when he beat Petey Sarron for the featherweight title and nearly 31 when he lost his titles to Fritzie Zivic, not almost 28, and 33 when he was all-but washed-up against Ray Robinson. (Published Boxing News, 30.9.10, p.43)