Freeman, Katharine Parker, 1888-1983

Katharine Parker Freeman, a native of Goldsboro, N.C., received B.A. degrees from Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., and Simmons College in Boston, Mass.; taught at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, S.C., the University of Puerto Rico, and Meredith; married L. E. M. Freeman, pastor and professor of religion at Meredith; raised five sons; was an active member of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church; and worked to improve race relations.

Katharine Parker Freeman (6 December 1888-September 1983), a native of Goldsboro, N.C., was the youngest child of Thomas Bradley Parker (1851-1934) and Penelope Ann Alderman Parker (1851-1933). Her father farmed near Goldsboro, then moved to Hillsborough, N.C. (sometimes Hillsboro), when Katharine was about six years old, and was secretary-treasurer of the Farmer's Alliance. Katharine attended Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C., beginning with a year of preparatory work when she was 15 and earning a B.A. in 1910. Her parents moved to Raleigh about 1905, when her father became director of Farmers' Institutes.

After she received her B.A. from Meredith, Katharine went, at her father's suggestion, to Simmons College in Boston to study home economics. When she had completed her B.A. at Simmons, she taught for one year at Winthrop College in Rock Hill, S.C., then went to Puerto Rico as assistant in home economics at the College of Agriculture in Mayaguez. She taught in Puerto Rico for a year and then returned to Raleigh to start a home economics department at Meredith College.

During her first year of teaching at Meredith, Katharine Parker met and married L. E. M. (Lemuel Elmer MacMillan) Freeman (4 June 1879-21 January 1979), a widower who taught religion at Meredith. Lem had received a B.A. from Furman; M.A. from Harvard; B.D. from Andover Newton Theological Seminary in Newton, Mass.; and Th.D. from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. He taught religion at Meredith for about 38 years and was chair of the Department of Religion for much of that time. He also was pastor of several country and small town churches near Raleigh. He farmed about 15 acres at his home on Old Fayetteville Road, two miles south of the State Capitol building. After he retired from Meredith, Lem taught for about ten years at Shaw University in Raleigh.

After her marriage, Katharine resigned from the faculty at Meredith. She raised five children: L. E. M. Freeman, Jr., her husband's son from his earlier marriage; John Alderman Freeman (1917- ); Thomas Parker Freeman (1919- ); Charles Maddry Freeman (1921- ); and David Franklin Freeman (1925- ). As of 1975, Lt. Col. L. E. M. Freeman, Jr., had retired from army and entered the real estate business in Tampa, Fla.; Dr. John Alderman Freeman was chair of Department of Biology at Winthrop College, Rock Hill, S.C.; Dr. Thomas Parker Freeman was a dentist in Chapel Hill, N.C.; Dr. Charles Maddry Freeman, a sociologist, directed the leadership training program of the national 4-H organization; and Dr. David Franklin Freeman was a psychiatrist in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Katharine and L. E. M. Freeman were active in promoting racial integration from the early 1940s through the 1960s. In about 1943, they started an interracial group, which met in their home and had Christmas dinners and summer picnics together. They also joined the Fellowship of Southern Churchmen. They were active members of Pullen Memorial Baptist Church for more than 60 years.