Donald William Freed

HOLDREGE -- Donald William Freed of rural Loomis died Sunday, June 19, 2005, at Phelps Memorial Health Center in Holdrege. He was 80 years old.

He was born May 27, 1925, on the family farm three miles north of Loomis, the oldest child of Roy and Ellen (Johnson) Freed.

Don attended Loomis Public School and graduated from Loomis High School in 1943. He was conscripted into the U.S. Army as an infantryman in January 1944 and served in Germany during World War II as a foot soldier. Following VE Day in May of 1945, he served for two years as a staff sergeant at Fort Dix, NJ, before his honorable discharge June 26, 1946.

Donald then attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for two years before returning to the family farm.

On Sept. 22, 1950, he was united in marriage to Mary Louise Callen, at Memorial United Methodist Church in McCook.

The family made their first home at Bertrand and then moved to a farm five miles north of Loomis. In 1963, upon Don's father's retirement to Holdrege, the family moved to the family farm two miles south. Don lived on the farm until health issues caused him to move into the Holdrege Memorial Homes in September 2004.

He was preceded in death by his parents.

Survivors include his wife, Mary Louise of Holdrege; three sons, Donald Callen Freed of Lincoln, Carl Edward Freed and wife, Nancy, of Hastings, and Martin Henrys Freed and wife, Sue, of Loomis; four grandchildren; one brother, Marion Freed and wife, Connie, of Edina, Minn.; one sister, Colene Seeman and husband, Kenneth, of Omaha; and nieces and nephews.

Services will be Friday, June 24, at 10 a.m., at First United Methodist Church in Holdrege, with the Rev. Buck Linton-Hendrick officiating. Interment will be at the Moses Hill Cemetery in Phelps County.

Mr. Freed will lie in state at the Nelson-Bauer Funeral Home in Holdrege Thursday, from 1 p.m. until 9 p.m.

Memorials are suggested to the Loomis American Legion or First United Methodist Church of Holdrege.

The Nelson-Bauer Funeral Home of Holdrege is in charge of arrangements.