Published: April 10, 2008 02:23 am            

Mary Frances Freeman

Mary Frances Freeman was born in Palestine, Texas on the 14th of October 1933. She was the third daughter and seventh child born to Byron and Lee Anna (Walton) Freeman of Palestine. Byron was then a teacher and the principal of the Frederick Douglass Elementary School and Lee Anna was a housewife and homemaker. Mary attended public schools in Palestine, including Frederick Douglass Elementary, and she graduated from Lincoln High School as the Salutatorian in 1950.

Shortly after her graduation, she moved to Los Angeles and lived with her brother Billy and his wife while she attended college. Mary graduated from Compton Community College in 1953, attended the University of Southern California, and received her Bachelor's degree in Education from Pepperdine College in 1957. In January 1958, she was hired as an elementary school teacher by the Los Angeles City School District, and thus she began a 44-year career in public education.

After her first five years with the Los Angeles City Schools, she decided to explore new worlds so she applied to teach overseas with the Department of Defense Dependent School System. She was accepted and assigned to the RAF Bentwaters Elementary School in Suffolk, England. At the start of her second year there she met her husband George Stephens, a young Air Force Officer from Miami, Florida. They were married in 1966. During their time together in the United Kingdom, Mary and George traveled extensively in Britain and Europe, mostly in their Volkswagen Beetle. In 1967, George was reassigned to the 8th Tactical Fighter Wing at Upon, Thailand, to work in support of the Wing's combat operations over North Vietnam, and Mary returned to her job with the Los Angeles School System. During George's yearlong tour in Thailand, Mary traveled there three times to visit him, including a two-month stint in northern Thailand during the summer of 1968. Mary continued working as a teacher, coordinator and Master Teacher for the next 34 years.

In 1974, she added a Master's degree in School Management and Administration to her list of credentials. She and George also traveled to Europe several times during those years.

Mary retired, reluctantly, in 2002 and the happy couple took several long road trips across the U.S. and Canada. Mary particularly enjoyed visiting New England in the fall to see the brilliant reds and yellows of the changing foliage. They also went on cruises on the Queen Elizabeth II and the Queen Mary II.

Mary was diagnosed with breast cancer in August of 2006 and fought the disease with great determination and courage for 19 months. She passed away on the 26th of March 2008. Mary was a complete person: beautiful, intelligent, charming, competent, loving and compassionate. She made living look simple. George often quipped that she loved teaching and children so much that her personal motto should be “she never met a child she didn’t like.”

Mary F. Stephens is survived by her husband, George Stephens; her brother, Vernon Freeman of Sacramento, California; her sister, Patsy F. Chester of Los Angeles; and several nieces and nephews.

        

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