Fern Baer Freeman

Fern Baer Freeman…

…was born December 23, 1923 in the Aberdeen, Idaho area to Edward and Katherina (Friesen) Baer, who were part of that German Mennonite farming community.* Fern went first to the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (BIOLA later) and in 1946 completed her RN at Bethel Deaconess Hospital in Newton, Kansas. After various nursing work assignments (one in Berkeley, California) and more studies, Fern moved to the East Coast to attend the King’s College. She met and married New Yorker (Queens) Robert Franklin Freeman in Wilmington, Delaware on March 4, 1951. Fern completed a BS in Biology.

They had six children over the following eight years and had relocated to the Pacific Northwest by the time their second child (John) was born. They lived in Pocatello, Boise, and Mountain Home before leaving Idaho to move to Seattle in 1969. The Seattle area was Fern’s home from 1969-1974 and from 1985 to the present. The family lived in Ephrata, Washington 1975-1985 when the two younger girls (Ruth and Linda) were in high school. Fern worked for a dentist there and learned to craft teeth. Fern, Bob and Ruth moved back to Seattle in the mid-1980s. Fern consecutively became the manager of two apartment buildings. She remained back-up manager at Island View in West Seattle from age 75-85. Fern and Bob were both members of West Side Presbyterian Church in West Seattle.

She is pre-deceased by a daughter, Ruth Laurel Freeman, in 2007, and her husband Robert in 2008. She
has five living children [Daniel Freeman of Avon Lake, Ohio (near Cleveland), Lois Easley of Glen Ellyn, Illinois (near Chicago), John Freeman of Bellevue, Washington, Glenn Freeman of Kent, Washington and Linda Freeman of Edmonds, Washington], three children-in-law (Brenda in OH, Dan in IL and Susan in Kent) and nine grandchildren, (Julie, Amy, Sarah, Benjamin, Christopher, Katherine, Alison, Anna and Joseph).

*Fern wrote a brief (30-page) personal account of her immediate family called The Early Years which is available from her daughter Lois (lyeasley@gmail.com).