Lillian Elaine Armstong-South

Published 10:07 am Sunday, September 13, 2015

Lillian Elaine Armstong-South

March 18, 1934 – Aug. 8, 2015

FLORENCE, S.C. — Lillian Elaine Armstrong-South passed away on Aug. 8, 2015, at McLeod Hospice House in Florence, South Carolina, after a long illness. She was a native of Hyde County and was born in Fairfield on March 18, 1934. She was the daughter of Lucy Belle Baum and Charles Ludford Armstrong. Her maternal ancestors, the legendary Baum family, were early settlers of Hyde County and the Outer Banks.

“Lil,’ as she was affectionately known to family and friends, recalled picking cotton as a young child at the family’s farm near Rose Bay. She moved to Elizabeth City when she was 8 years old. After high school, she went to Savannah, Ga., to visit her sister Priscilla Armstrong Carter and met a young airman, Bill J. South, and they were married over 63 years ago at the Base Chapel at Hunter Air Force Base in Savannah. As a career-Air Force family, they were transferred to the San Francisco Bay Area in the mid-1960s. Lil had a long and successful career as a senior product planner at Signetics/Phillips Electronics Co. in Sunnydale, California, and retired in 1994. She and Bill moved to Florence in 1995 to be near Bill’s father who was nearing 100 years old. In the late 1990s, the formed GeeChee Productions and GeeChee Publishing Co. to publish their best-selling book “Growing Up in Pooler,” which was released in 2003, and has become a collectors item. Lillian was President and CEO of GeeChee Companies. She and her husband produced several historical documentaries about life in the Deep South.

She was preceded in death by her parents; sisters, Iva Delgado, Priscilla Carter, Tapp Hodges, Rose DeBorde and a brother, Elbert J. Armstrong. Lil is survived by her husband Bill; two sons, Bill J. South Jr. (and wife Terri) of Madera, Calif., and Rick South (and wife Lisa) of Santa Clara, Calif; two granddaughters, Jennifer Kane and Kelsey South of California; three grandsons, Joseph and Aaron South of California and Jeremy South of Greensboro; four great-granddaughters, Mia and Mylee South and Ava and Sophie Kane, all of California. She is survived by several cousins in the Fairfield-Engelhard area: R.S. Spencer Jr., Maya Cutrell, Pat Herman and Clare and Walter Baum. A graveside memorial service in celebration of Lillian’s life will be held on Tuesday, Sept. 15, at 11 a.m. at Fairfield Cemetery in Fairfield. Bryan Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements and Steve Bryan will officiate. In lieu of flowers, donations in her memory are suggested to the Hyde County Historical and Genealogical Society, PO Box 517, Engelhard, NC 27824.