Dr. Helen Caffey Freeman

Doctor Helen Caffey Freeman of Sandy Springs died in the midst of family and friends Wednesday morning, July 26. She was born September 23, 1931, in Charlottesville, VA, the daughter of General Eugene Mead Caffey of Decatur, and Catherine Howell, of Morristown, NJ. She was a proud member of a group of nine siblings, of whom she was thinking until the day of her death. She met her future husband, the late Dr. Olen Ivo Freeman, Jr., while a student at the Medical College of Georgia in 1952. They married in 1963, and spent 46 years together living a life of love and laughter with their three sons until his passing in 2009. The sanctity of life, the importance of family, and her Roman Catholic faith were the paramount threads holding her soul together in this earthly realm. As she was always the life of the party in this world, so shall she be in the Kingdom of Heaven. Helen (Dimp, to her family and friends) had an intense calling towards the practice of medicine from an early age. Following graduation from MCG, an internship in Baltimore, and a Pediatrics residency in Connecticut, she returned to practice in Georgia. After employment at Central State Hospital and the Fulton County Health Department, she became Director of Medical Services at Georgia Retardation Center. After more than a decade there, she set her Pediatric practice aside to become board certified in Physiatry, a then new specialty focusing on physical rehabilitation medicine. She was also associated for many years with Georgia Regional Hospital, and the Atlanta Cerebral Palsy Center. Still later, the Retardation Center begged her to return to head them up, which she did until its dissolution. This was not the end of her practice though: she spent years working as a consultant reviewing cases for the Social Security Administration. Her practice gave her immense pleasure, and she would have continued forever, but her concerns that Parkinson's Disease had left her communications skills impaired led her to retire three years ago. Dr. Freeman was a well-seasoned, world wide traveler, and considered travel one of life's great luxuries. She well loved her dogs, and took great comfort and pleasure from them, but as she would say, "They are not people." She believed there was never a reason not to have a family gathering, any excuse would do. As such, and in memory of her, we expect a great horde to attend a Mass in her honor at All Saints Catholic Church on Monday, July 1, at 10:30 AM. Internment and graveside services will follow at Booth Memorial Park, GA Route 330, outside of Winder. Her pallbearers will be her three sons, Olen I. Freeman III of Baltimore, Eugene M.C. Freeman of Sandy Springs, and Edwin Booth Freeman of Athens. They will be joined by James C. Sturrock, Jr., Jay Sturrock, Jeff Thomas, Malcolm Bentley, and Edward Brown. The family requests that in lieu of flowers, a donation be made to the Georgia ASPCA.