1925 Biography - Willie C. Freeman

Willie C. Freeman is a native of Louisiana, and has devoted his career with success and honor to the vocation of a school man. He has been a teacher and administrator of several schools, and is now principal of the Loreauville High School in Iberia Parish.

He was born at Wyatt in Jackson Parish, May 16, 1887. His father, Francis M. Freeman, a resident of Wyatt, was born in Mississippi in 1851, but from early boyhood was reared in Jackson Parish, Louisiana, married there and has had a life of effective effort as a farmer. He is a democrat and for eight years was a member of the Jackson Parish police Jury. He is affiliated with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, the Masonic fraternity and the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Francis M. Freeman married Dicie Savage, who was born in Alabama in 1851. They have a family of six children: Mollie, who died in Jackson Parish in 1908, wife of Sikes Watkins, a farmer in that parish; Lou, wife of Tom Holsomback, a farmer in Jackson Parish; John H., a railway employe at Beaumont, Texas; Willie C.; Lillie, twin sister of Willie, and wife of Irvin Johns, a farmer in Jackson Parish; and Frank, connected with a mining company at Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Willie C. Freeman grew up in a rural district in Jackson Parish, attended public schools there, and completed his liberal education in the Louisiana State Normal College at Natchitoches, where he was graduated, later receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree from this institution and doing graduate work at Tulane University. While in college Mr. Freeman won six medals in competitive work, one for oratory, two for singing and three years in succession in debating.

His record as an educator is briefly as follows: One year as principal of the graded school at Hoods Mill at Jackson Parish; two years as principal of the high school at Ansley; two years as principal of the Beech Springs High School; three years principal of the Vermuda Hill High School; and in 1920 he came to Loreauville, where for five years he has been head and principal of the high school.

Mr. Freeman is a member of the Louisiana State Teacher's Association, and a former member of the National Educational Association. He is a democrat, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, belongs to Weston Lodge of Masons in Jackson Parish, and is a former member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows. While teaching he has acquired some property interests, including a farm of 120 acres and a residence five miles southeast of Jonesboro in Jackson Parish, Louisiana.

Mr. Freeman married at Hoods Mill February 5, 1915, Miss Minnie Jordan, who was born in that community. She also finished her education in the Louisiana State Normal College at Natchitoches, and for seven years before her marriage was engaged in teaching. They have two children: Willie Norris, born November 15, 1916; and Marie, born May 14, 1918.

Contributed 2021 Nov 04 by Mike Miller, from A History of Louisiana, by Henry E. Chambers, published in 1925, volume 2, pages 296-297.