Sarah Armstrong

Sarah Magdalene Jones (née Armstrong) (February 16th, 1938 - November 9th, 1995) was the ex-wife of Jay Whitman, and mother of his son.

In 1973, a year after the conviction of Whitman and three of his followers for murder of Margaret Kelly and her two friends, Sarah broke a year long silence through a lengthy interview with the New York Times, which led to several television appearances.

The following year, she announced she would not be conducting any more interviews in order to spend more time with her family. She kept a low profile until her death in 1995, from lung cancer.

Early Life
Sarah was born in Jackson, Wyoming, the only daughter of Fred and Marian Armstrong, in 1938. When Sarah was four, her parents divorced and her mother abandoned the family.

This caused Sarah to become jaded about love and relationships, and often told friends she would become a spinster. Her father, who had wanted her to be a boy, taught her to hunt, fish, and fix cars. She had no one to teach her more stereotypically feminine hobbies like sewing and cooking, which left her feeling isolated from her peers.

When Sarah was eight, her father opened a motel in Jackson, which quickly became profitable, due to its affordability and proximity to Yellowstone National Park. In 1951, the year Sarah turned fourteen, her father offered her a part time job at the hotel.

Meeting Jay Whitman
In November 1952, then eighteen-year-old Jay Whitman became a guest at Fred Armstrong's motel. He asked to Sarah to help him fix the radio in his room. While the then fourteen year old Sarah could not help, the two developed an instant attraction to one another and agreed to go out on a date.

Marriage and Children
Sarah married in Jay in June 1956, two weeks after her high school graduation. They moved to a house in Helena, Montana where she became friends with neighbor Victoria Schaefer. That September, Sarah discovered she was pregnant. The couple's first child, Adam, was born in June of 1957. The following year, the couple moved to Livingston, outside of Bozeman, in order to live in a house with a bedroom for their son. Armstrong would later state that the next three years were the happiest in her marriage.

In 1960, Sarah learned that she was once again pregnant. Whereas her first pregnancy had been uneventful, this one was difficult. In July of 1961, she gave birth to a daughter, who she would name Susan Anna. However, Susan was often ill and confined to bed. She would be diagnosed with brain cancer shortly before her second birthday in 1963.