Mrs. Martha Anne Kemp Freeman of Atlanta, GA, and wife of the late, Mr. Richard Columbus Freeman III, ESQ (USN Ret.), passed away on Wednesday, January 23rd, 2019, at Piedmont Hospital with family by her side. She was 80.
Mrs. Freeman’s funeral service will be held on Friday, February 8th, at 10:30am in the chapel of Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, located at: 3180 Peachtree Road, Atlanta, GA 30305. Visitation will precede the service that morning, also in the chapel, and will begin at 9:30am. Her burial will follow that afternoon, commencing at 2:00pm, at the Georgia National Cemetery located at: 1080 Scott Hudgens Drive, Canton, GA 30114 (https://www.cem.va.gov/cems/nchp/georgia.asp).
Born in Norman Park, GA on November 25, 1938, to the late, Mr. Julius Ralph Kemp and Mrs. Mazel Weeks Kemp Ford, she was raised in Atlanta, GA, where she attended Northside High School (now known as North Atlanta High School). Upon graduation, she attended the University of Georgia where she received a Bachelor of Arts. During her time at Georgia, she was a member of Alpha Gamma Delta sorority.
Upon graduation from UGA, she was an international flight attendant for Delta Airlines, traveling the world before meeting her beloved husband of 52 years, the late, Mr. Richard Columbus Freeman III, while vacationing on St. Simons Island, GA in 1963. They married on January 29th, 1965, at Northside United Methodist Church in Atlanta.
While her husband attended law school at the University of North Carolina, she attended Chapel Hill as well, receiving her Master of Education on August 28th, 1968. During this time, her first two sons were born. Upon their graduations from UNC, they returned to Atlanta, where she was a preschool teacher for over 20 years at St. Philip's Cathedral Preschool where she was known for her humility and kindness. She then became a Certified Public Accountant and was the preschool’s administrator for another 10 years.
When not working at the Cathedral, she was a devoted wife and mother, and a competitive ALTA tennis player, playing weekly matches (ladies singles and doubles), throughout Atlanta for over 20 years. She was also very active at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church, from the Good News Adult Sunday School to the Stephen Ministry, and was a voracious reader and an avid Braves baseball fan.
She is survived by her sister, Anita Kemp Shipley, her sons, Richard Columbus Freeman, IV, Stephen Kemp Freeman and Duncan Perry Freeman, her daughter-in-laws, Karen Marie Freeman, Cynthia Sanders Freeman and Rachel LaRue Freeman, and four grandchildren: Stella Ann Freeman, Calista Marie Freeman, Duncan Perry Freeman, II, and Parker LaRue Freeman, as well as many cousins, nephews and nieces. She will be sorely missed.
