Leslie Armstrong, 50, her radio show aided addicts
wazzzy
Leslie Armstrong, a Miami-based mental health counselor who turned
addiction into inspiration over radio airwaves, died May 22 in New
Orleans. She was 50.
The cause has yet to be determined, her mother, Vera Armstrong, said.
An employee of the Loews New Orleans Hotel found Armstrong dead in her
hotel bed, her mother said. Armstrong was in New Orleans to lecture at
Tulane University.
Armstrong offered advice to listeners on the local radio program Clean
and Sober Hour, which ran at 6 a.m. on WZTA-FM (94.9) from 1990 until
2002, and most recently on Sirius Radio's Meet the Shrink, a program
affiliated with the Howard Stern Show.
Every Sunday morning on Clean and Sober, Armstrong would field calls,
often from people who had been out all night partying. She also
interviewed guests, including Steven Tyler of Aerosmith and Maurice
Gibb of the Bee Gees.
''She helped thousands of people,'' said Joe's Stone Crab co-owner
Steve Sawitz, a friend.
Born Feb. 1, 1957, Armstrong became a successful stock and commodities
broker by the age of 30.
But along with her success, she had developed an addiction. Despite
promising herself that she would never drink after she was thrown
through a car windshield as a young girl during an accident involving
a drunken driver, Armstrong became a heavy drinker and developed a
painkiller habit.
She checked into South Miami Hospital's addiction treatment program in
the late 1980s and afterward began counseling other addicts.
Eventually, she became program director of Glenbeigh Hospital's
chemical dependency unit.
''She was proud of her recovery and extremely secure in her
sobriety,'' said friend Tara Solomon.
Armstrong earned a master's degree from Barry University and would
have earned a doctorate had she completed her dissertation, Solomon
said.
When she wasn't listening to others' problems, Armstrong often was
relaxing at her favorite hangout, Joe's Stone Crab.
''I think it was cozy for her,'' Sawitz said. ``She felt comfortable
here.''
In fact, Armstrong liked Joe's so much she married her second husband,
Olivier Leclary, in the restaurant's courtyard in 1998. The couple
divorced in 2003.
Friend Shelley Kravitz, a Miami-Dade County Court judge, married the
couple.
''We'd always been close, but that's the highest honor, to have your
close friend want you to perform the wedding ceremony,'' Kravitz said.
Sawitz said some of his best memories of Armstrong came in the
restaurant. That's where the friends met once a week to enjoy dinner
and also where she met President George W. Bush in 2006.
''Without question, I'm a better person for having known her,'' Sawitz
said.
Along with her mother, Armstrong is survived by brother Lance.
Services will be at noon Friday at Fred Hunter's Memorial Service,
6301 Taft St., Hollywood.
BY DAVID SMILEY