Freda Elise Adams Adams, 88, of Nacogdoches, Texas passed away on February 20, 2021. A private graveside service in her honor will be held at Sunset Memorial Cemetery on March 6, 2021 with Curtis Barbarick, minister of North Street Church of Christ, officiating.
Nothing surpassed Freda’s love of family. Her devotion to knowing, serving, and loving her family dominated both waking and sleeping. Freda was also inexorably connected to God, a relationship that she described as awakening at the age of three. She was an artist with a delightful whimsical style, a writer whose attention to detail rivaled Dickens, a gifted seamstress, a plant whisperer, and a creative and prolific chef. She was a voracious reader and instilled a love of words in all of her children.
Freda was born in Houston, Texas on April 21, 1932 in the middle of The Great Depression. The youngest of three girls, her parents worked hard to provide the essentials of life, supplementing the family’s needs with a milk cow, chickens, and a garden, all the ingredients Freda needed to develop a love of, and deep communion with nature. She taught her children and grandchildren to relish the sensation of a June bug crawling up their arm, and how to attach a green anole to their earlobe as the most beautiful and natural of earrings. Baby animals were her passion. Freda’s household lived outside the box, nurturing a long list of both domestic and exotic pets.
Freda graduated Jefferson Davis High School in 1950 as one of the top ten students. That same year, a day before her 18th birthday, and just weeks before graduation, she married her sweetheart, William R. “Bill” Adams, Jr. While Bill was in Korea serving in the U.S. Army, Freda lived with her mother and worked for the telephone company. She saved every penny that the Army paid her, and when Bill returned, she bought a car and a whole house full of furniture for their new home. They enjoyed fifty-nine years of marriage before his passing in 2009. Together, they had five children, and she always said she could have had five more.
Freda is preceded in death by her husband, William Rudolph “Bill” Adams, Jr., son, Michael William Adams, daughter-in-law, Mary Hufstedler Adams, father, Eddie Rivers Adams, mother, Verna Iona Power Adams, sister, Doris Adams Strickland, and sister, Eddie Fay Adams Finney,
Freda is survived by her daughter-in-law Joanne Lanci Adams, son, Stephen Todd Adams, son, Daniel Dean Adams and wife, Meagan McDonald Adams, daughter, Diana Gay Adams Burgess and husband, Dick J. Burgess, daughter, Sheri Lea Adams Mullican and husband, Timothy Lee Mullican. She is survived by grandchildren Taylor Nicole Adams, Sagan Maryse Adams Greenville and husband, Tyler Greenville, Evan Michael Adams and partner, Caitlin, Seth Grueneberg and wife, Lindsey Grueneberg, Haley Elise Adams and partner, Hannah Hagar, Samuel Douglas Adams, Savannah Leigh Adams Roberts and husband, David Roberts, Lauren Hope Adams, William Adam Burgess and wife, Elizabeth Burgess, Emily Faith Burgess, Kylea Rene Mullican Nichols and husband, Matt Nichols, Brannen Todd Mullican and wife, Ashleigh Mullican, and Chaney Michelle Amy Mullican. Freda is also survived by great grandchildren Haven Porter Adams, Waylan Grueneberg, Immy Grueneberg, Eleanor Lee Adams, Turner Martin Roberts, Merrick Jones Roberts, Addison Rae Burgess, Scarlett Kathryn Burgess, and Everett William Burgess. She is also survived by a virtual village of nieces, nephews, and beloved in-laws.
Due to potential COVID transmission concerns, there will be no public visitation; however, the family cherishes your prayers, thoughts, and cards. Those may be mailed to the Adams Family at 7233 Menchaca Rd. #9, Austin, TX 78745. In lieu of flowers, the family asks that you donate to Freda’s favorite charities in her honor: The Family Crisis Center (Nacogdoches Women’s Shelter Thrift Shop), 3909 North Street, Nacogdoches, TX 75965 or Neema Village Tanzania, Inc., P.O. Box 21553, Waco, TX 76702.
