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ARMSTRONG - In the brush country south of Sarita, a few miles east of U.S. Highway 77, sophistication and political power have mixed with the independence of Texas pioneers. Here, 6-foot-4-inch Tobin Armstrong, the descendant of a Texas Ranger and a Yale scholar, and the petite brunette, Anne Armstrong, former U.S. ambassador to Great Britain, hold court. Guests at the 50,000-acre ranch have included former president George Bush; his son and presidential candidate Gov. George W. Bush, the Rockefellers and Prince Charles. Armstrong Ranch still is an old-fashioned Texas ranch, run by Tobin Armstrong, who oversees it by Suburban and mobile telephone. A colony of cowboys who live in houses surrounding the big house work the 2,500 Santa Gertrudis cattle while riding thoroughbred horses, the Armstrong version of cow ponies. ""One of the best things about this ranch is that it is a grandchild magnet,"" said Tobin Armstrong, who has five children and 12 grandchildren, who visit the ranch frequently. The Armstrong Ranch was purchased in 1852 and settled in 1882 by John Armstrong III, a Texas Ranger from Tennessee. He had come to South Texas to clean up the border and became famous for capturing the notorious outlaw John Wesley Hardin. His sons combined the sophistication of an East Coast education with the ruggedness of a ranch upbringing. Charlie Armstrong, Tobin Armstrong''s father, graduated from Yale in 1908 and returned to South Texas to manage the ranch. Charlie''s brother, Tom Armstrong, graduated from Princeton and Harvard Law School before going to work as an executive for Standard Oil Co. The Armstrongs were instrumental in bringing polo to South Texas, and when Prince Charles came to visit, Tobin arranged a match for him on the ranch''s polo field. ""I never rode a bought horse,"" Armstrong said. ""I raised and trained my own thoroughbreds."" Tobin Armstrong was tutored at home until he was 9, when he was sent to private school in San Antonio. He attended the University of Texas and Texas A&M University. Ties between the Armstrong Ranch and the King Ranch always have been close. Tobin''s older brother, John Armstrong, married the King Ranch''s Henrietta Kleberg, and his uncle, Tom, married her mother, Henrietta Kleberg Larkin. John Armstrong was the last family member to serve as president of the King Ranch. Despite the international circles in which they move, the Armstrongs are still ranchers to the core, talking of weather and rainfall as readily as business and politics. ""Look how green the grass is,'''' Anne Armstrong said on a recent hot day. ""We haven''t had it like this for several years. It will be good for the cattle."" Staff writer Mary Lee Grant can be reached at 886-3752 or by e-mail at grantm@caller.com ANNE LEGENDRE ARMSTRONG Armstrong, Anne Legendre (1927-...), was the first woman to serve as United States ambassador to Britain. President Gerald R. Ford appointed her to the office, which she held in 1976 and 1977. She had previously been the first woman to hold the Cabinet-level post of counselor to the president. She was named to that position by President Richard M. Nixon in 1972 and served under both Nixon and Ford. Anne Legendre was born in New Orleans and graduated from Vassar College. She married Tobin Armstrong, a Texas cattle rancher, in 1950. She served as vice chairman of the Texas Republican Party from 1966 to 1968. In 1971 and 1972, she was cochairman of the Republican National Committee. As counselor to the President, Armstrong was a member of the president''s Domestic Council, the Council on Wage and Price Stability, and the Commission on the Organization of Government for the Conduct of Foreign Policy. Source: http://school.discovery.com/homeworkhelp/worldbook/atozhistory/a/723253.html CURRENT SEC FILINGS RE: ANNE L. ARMSTRONG: http://www.secinfo.com/$/SEC/Name.asp?X=anne+l%2E+armstrong ""Anne L. Armstrong"" Latest Filing: 3/29/0 as Signatory As: Signatory (Director, Officer, Attorney, Accountant, Banker, Agent, etc.) List All Filings as Signatory Search Recent Filings (as Signatory) for ""Anne L. Armstrong"" ""Anne L. Armstrong"" has been a Signatory for the following 11 Registrants: American Express Co American Express Co Capital Trust I American Express Co Capital Trust II Boise Cascade Corp Boise Cascade Trust I Boise Cascade Trust II Boise Cascade Trust III General Motors Capital Trust D General Motors Capital Trust G General Motors Corp Halliburton Co ANNE L. ARMSTRONG, 71, Regent, Texas A&M University System; Member, Board of Trustees, Center for Strategic and International Studies; Member, National Security Advisory Board, Department of Defense; former Chairman of the President''s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, 1981-1990; former Ambassador to Great Britain; joined Halliburton Company Board in 1977; Chairman of the Health, Safety and Environment Committee and member of the Management Oversight and the Nominating and Corporate Governance Committees; Director of American Express Company and Boise Cascade Corporation. Source: http://www.secinfo.com/dScRa.6Mx.htm 1931.