Armstead, James, Jr. "Jimmie"
(born: Sept. 8 or 9, 1919 - died: Nov. 9, 2006)Said to have been born in Louisville, KY, James Armstead, Jr. graduated from Louisville Central High School in 1936; he also attended Louisville Municipal College for Negroes.
Armstead was a tailback on the Municipal College football team and a starting guard on the basketball team. While still a student during the summers of 1938 and 1939, he played baseball with the Indianapolis ABCs, a Negro League team.
Armstead played baseball full-time in the Negro League from 1940-1951, playing for a number of teams before and after his stint in the military during World War II, including playing first base for the Philadelphia Stars in 1949.
Armstead later joined the U.S Air Force and trained as a pilot at the Tuskegee Army Airfield in Alabama.
According to the U.S. Social Security Death Index, James R. Armstead was born September 8, 1919 and died in Louisville November 9, 2006. He is buried in Cave Hill Cemetery. He was the son of James, Sr. and Ada Armstead and the husband of Edna Earl Reeden Armstead. [James Armstead, Sr. and Ada Armstead were born in Alabama. Though Louisville was given as his birth location in the obituary, other sources give James Armstead, Jr.'s birth location as Alabama.]
For more information see B. Brainstaff, "Buck stops here - and is a hit," Courier-Journal, 3/24/2004, Sports section, p. 1E; "James Armstead, Jr." in the obituaries in the Courier-Journal, 11/14/2006; and Jimmie Armstead at Negro Leagues Baseball eMuseum.
