Diksha Sundriyal
2018’s ‘First Man’ explores a decade in the life of Neil Armstrong and his dedication to the space program, which led him to become the first man to set foot on the Moon. Apart from his training, the film also focuses on his personal life and his tendency to remove himself from others emotionally, especially since the death of his daughter, Karen. This distance creates an unscalable rift between him and his wife, Janet. By the end of the film, we see them reconcile, but as is common knowledge, the couple split in 1994. Eventually, Neil Armstrong married Carol Held Knight.
Carol Armstrong Enjoys Her Privacy at Her Ohio Home
Carol Armstrong lives in Indian Hill, Ohio, where she moved with her second husband, Neil Armstrong, with whom she enjoyed 18 years of marriage. The 79-year-old has two children, Andrew and Molly, from her first marriage with Ralph Knight, who died due to the injuries he sustained in a plane crash in 1989. Reportedly, he was a roofing business owner and had been on a plane that crashed near Daytona Beach Regional Airport due to bad weather conditions. While he survived the accident, he passed away five days later due to a stroke.
Described as a “super gal” and “chatty and very friendly” by Armstrong’s friends, Carol worked as a teacher for a few years. She met Neil Armstrong — who separated from his wife of 38 years, Janet, in 1990 — in 1992 at a golf tournament. Due to his reputation, Carol, 15 years his junior, was initially hesitant to converse with him. However, she had an impact on him, and he called her two weeks later and arrived at her home to help her cut down a cherry tree. They married in 1994 after his divorce from Janet was finalized and remained together till his death in 2012. Following the wedding, the couple moved into Carol’s house in Indian Hills in Cincinnati.
Carol Actively Works to Preserve Neil Armstrong’s Legacy
While Carol came into Neil’s life decades after the Moon Landing, she has played an important part in keeping his legacy alive by sharing his things with the world. In 2015, she discovered a white cloth bag inside his closet and realized that it was the McDivitt Purse that the astronauts were supposed to have left behind on the Moon. The bag contained tools, hooks, and a small camera that recorded Armstrong’s first step on the Moon and his iconic “giant leap for mankind” line. Carol donated the bag and all things inside it to the National Air and Space Museum in Washington after they were verified to have been in the real thing. Apart from this, she also shared Neil Armstrong’s correspondence and paper files with Purdue University.
In 2018, when Neil’s sons, Eric and Mark Armstrong, decided to auction off several of their father’s mementos, Carol expressed her objection to the act. She stated that her husband wouldn’t have supported the idea of selling his things and would have much rather have them donated to an institution. She also clarified that she had zero participation in the payout situation with Mercy Health-Fairfield Hospital, which was held responsible for Neil Armstrong’s lack of proper care following his death in 2012 due to complications after heart surgery. The hospital paid about $6 million to settle the case, but Carol voluntarily stayed out of it and did not seek any claim on the money.
Since her husband’s passing away, Carol has continued to talk about him and share his story and legacy with the world in different ways. She has appeared as herself in several documentaries and TV movies about Neil Armstrong, such as ‘Nova,’ ‘Neil Armstrong: First Man on the Moon,’ and ‘The Armstrong Tapes.’ In 2016, she was present at the launching of the Research Vessel named after Neil Armstrong, which was transferred to WHOI operation in 2015. In March 2023, she served as a special guest reader for the Children’s Museum at Cincinnati Museum Center, where she read from ‘Bok’s Giant Leap: One Moon Rock’s Journey Through Time and Space,’ inspired by the Apollo 11 mission. Apart from this, Carol prefers to live privately out of the limelight, much like her late husband did.
Read More: First Man: Did Neil Armstrong Really Leave His Daughter’s Bracelet on the Moon?
