Meeting Loma Dillon
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In January 1917, Mr. Armstrong visited Des Moines to renew contracts and search for potential clients. At his mother’s request, he visited his Aunt Emma (his mother’s twin sister), who was sick with pneumonia. She lived on a farm about 30 miles away, a mile outside a tiny crossroads town called Motor. Upon his arrival, he was relieved to find that his aunt was already quickly recovering from her illness.
That afternoon, he met two young ladies who were also visiting Aunt Emma—sisters Loma and Bertha Dillon. They were Mr. Armstrong’s distant relatives (third cousins). Around the same age as he, Loma Dillon was a local school teacher.
Like a lightning bolt, Mr. Armstrong was struck by her natural energy and zest for life. Describing her, he wrote, “I hadn’t seen such fresh, joyous, ‘zip and go’ in a long time. She literally exuded energy, sparkle, good cheer, the friendly warmth of a sincere, outgoing personality…She was even prettier than her sister. There was something different about her—something wholesome that I liked…She seemed to be a girl of sound-minded good sense and high ideals. She had superior intelligence. There was a mental depth most girls lacked…There was none of the haughty social veneer—none of the acquired artificial mannerisms of the eastern ‘finishing school’ products or the social debutante. Indeed, I perceived she was a bit naive. She was completely sincere in trusting and believing inpeople. She had not seen or learned much of the rottenness and evils of this world. She had that innocent, completely unspoiled freshness of a breath of spring…She was full of fun, yet serious—with the unspoiled wholesomeness of an Iowa country girl. And, most important of all, strength of character! I observed quickly that although she was alert and active-minded, hers was not one of those flighty surface minds, active but shallow. She was able to discuss serious and deep things intelligently. She was very much an extrovert, but not a shallow, gossipy chatterbox.”
The two began to spend time together, slowly getting to know each other. Yet, Mr. Armstrong made a conscious effort not to rush things. Like many, he thought that love was some “mysterious force” that struck unsuspecting men and caused them to “fall” for someone. Mr. Armstrong feared being romantically caught off guard, rushing off into a marriage with the wrong woman. So he deliberately took his time in dating.
Resuming his work back in Chicago, he and Loma Dillon sent letters to each other almost daily. And he “discovered” that Iowa just happened to have potential business opportunities that required him to make frequent trips there.
Later, when he became serious about her, Mr. Armstrong asked a doctor if there were any reasons why third cousins should not marry. The doctor assured him that, when it came to marriage, third cousins were so far apart from each other in the family tree that they were not truly cousins.
Getting Married
Dating eventually led to courtship, and courtship soon led to marriage. Herbert W. Armstrong and Loma Dillon were married on July 31, 1917.
Their wedding date was moved up due to America’s entrance into World War I. Since the U.S. army was in dire need of military officers, Mr. Armstrong planned to enlist and serve his country. He wanted to postpone the wedding until after the war was over, but his fiancée and peers convinced him that it was better to get married before going off to war.
Mr. Armstrong applied to Officers’ Training Camp, and, armed with written statements of prominent business leaders who verified that he possessed a college-level education, he was accepted. However, just as he was prepared to be shipped off to war, Mr. Armstrong was turned away at the last minute due to an over-abundance of applicants with military experience. This happened to him twice.
He proceeded to get married, expecting to be drafted soon after. But the call never came.
The newlyweds lived in the heart of Chicago. Mrs. Armstrong, who was born and reared an Iowa country girl, was shocked and disturbed by the harsh, suspicious, self-centered, fast-paced lifestyles of the big city.
The Armstrongs had to move from apartment to apartment several times, often subleasing. Chicago’s booming metropolitan area was undergoing a massive population explosion, growing from 2.2 million people in 1910 to 2.7 million in 1920—an increase of about 516,000 in just ten years! A 50,000-plus annual growth rate of residents meant that housing—especially quality housing in a safeenvironment—was hard to come by.
From the very start, Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong’s marriage was a close-knit partnership, with Mr. Armstrong taking the lead, and his wife assisting him. For example, when Mr. Armstrong conceived of opinion surveys or produced display ads to win over potential clients, he listened to and valued his wife’s opinion and insight. Their partnership would later prove invaluable in Mr. Armstrong’s ministry to take Christ’s true gospel to the world. He wrote, “From the time of my conversion Mrs. Armstrong has always studied with me. We didn’t realize it then, but God was calling us together. We were always a team, working together in unity.”
Mr. Armstrong came to understand that a wife is fully one-half of a man’s ministry. She stands as a support to all of the many aspects of his responsibility to serve the people of God and do God’s Work. He was to reiterate this many times in later years.
A Growing Family
The Armstrongs soon became a family, with the birth of Beverly in May 1918. Two years later, they had their second child, Dorothy Jane.
It was during this pregnancy that Mrs. Armstrong fell sick with toxemia eclampsia and was hospitalized. A medical specialist helped her to recover and she was able to have a healthy delivery. However, the illness had prematurely turned Mrs. Armstrong’s golden blonde hair to white! Far worse, medical experts informed her that another pregnancy would mean certain death for her and the baby.
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