A visitation will be held from 5:00 to 7:00 pm on Tuesday, May 15 at East Lawn Funeral Home, 1102 Airport Road, Bloomington.
A celebration of life will be held at 10:00 am on Wednesday, May 16 at the Second Presbyterian Church, 404 N. Prairie St., Bloomington.
Freda married Harold Edwin Bathe on May 1, 1948; They had two children: John Harold and William Michael. Both sons predeceased their parents. Neither son had children. Freda is survived by her sister, Ruth Wood of Redwood City, CA and eight nieces and nephews. She was much loved by her family and friends.
Freda was born May 11, 1923 to Howard and Fannie Dickey in Van Wert, Ohio. She married Harold Edwin Bathe on May 1, 1948 in Peoria. Harold died in 2004.
Freda and Harold founded and, for years, operated the East Lawn Cemetery and Mortuary in Bloomington. Freda served as a homemaker, ambulance driver, and for many years worked as a secretary for State Farm.
Prior to their marriage, Harold had served as a Tech. Sgt. in the U.S. Army Air Corp during World War II. Based in Italy, his 10-man crew flew bombing missions in a B-17. In the spring of 1944, on his 35th mission, his plane was shot down over Yugoslavia as its crew was returning from bombing an Austrian oil site. Harold and other crew members parachuted to safety, only to be captured and sent to Luft IV, a German POW camp in Eastern Poland. On February 6, 1945, to avoid the advancing Soviets, the Germans began marching the POWs across frozen Poland and northern Germany in a devastating 700-mile, 7-week, trek in subzero weather. Many prisoners who could not go on were shot or died of starvation during that ordeal. Harold who had lost 52 pounds during that trek, managed to escape on March 28, 1945 and made his way to British lines and freedom. He never left the continental United States after his return from the war.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests that donations be sent to Greater Peoria Honor Flight, P.O. Box 5072, Peoria, IL 61601-5072. That organization takes Veterans to Washington, D.C. free of charge.
