Anne Dowdy Freeman

Anne Dowdy Freeman was born on January 24, 1939 in Rocky Mount, North Carolina to the late Bybe Davenport Dowdy and Jamie Dowdy. After graduating from Nashville High School as valedictorian and homecoming queen, she attended college and later married her high school sweetheart, Herbert Lewis Freeman. They were married until his death on May 8, 2016.

Anne received her Bachelor’s Degree from Women’s College of Greensboro located in Greensboro, North Carolina. Upon her graduation, she began her career, initially in the field of education, as a High School Home Economics teacher at Ramseur High School in Ramseur, North Carolina. However, after moving to Charlotte, North Carolina in the late 1960s, she changed careers and entered into what she described for many years as a “very challenging and fulfilling profession” of being a Social Worker.

After the family relocated to Rocky Mount, North Carolina in 1975, Anne continued her role as a Social Worker, rising to a management level role, within the Nash County Social Services Department in Nashville, North Carolina. Anne was passionate about her job, dedicating twenty-seven years to helping families and ensuring that they received the needed services and financial aid for their dependent children.

After retiring from a career in social services, Anne could have easily remained retired, but there was something tugging at her; a sense she had not yet fulfilled her career passions. She always talked about being raised among talented family members who were passionate about the law. Her grandfather, Lewis Ludford Davenport, was on the University of North Carolina Law Review and a law school graduate of University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Another strong influence on Anne’s passion for law was her uncle, John Edwin Davenport, also a law school graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

She considered applying to law school, but since she was in her early fifties, she chose a quicker route that could open the door for her to be among attorneys and expose herself to the challenges and intricacies of that profession. She enrolled at Pitt Community College full-time for two years and graduated at the top of her class, receiving a paralegal degree. Anne absolutely loved her paralegal job working for Paul Duffy at Lassiter & Sperati where Anne worked up until the age of 73.

Anne was always one to decide, create and pursue her own path, her own destiny. Her work ethic and dedication to her professional careers and to her family were some of the many things she excelled in and mastered. Age was not going to limit her from pursuing her interests.

Anne was an exceptional student, educator, writer and mother. Anne was generous and open-minded. She always took the time to listen and her advice was always impeccable and well thought. Anne’s sense of humor was amazingly funny and her wit acerbic. Anne was a voracious reader, often reading two or three books a week. Anne loved her music because she grew up in a house with a family who loved to dance! Anne loved her two daughters, Jackie and Lynne, and was often heard saying, “I love my girls!” Anne lived her life with a strength of character, independence and a deep sense of loyalty, love and commitment to her immediate family and her extended family. Anne always enjoyed a lively debate. She enjoyed her daily cocktail of a Benchmark and club soda, the occasional Bloody Mary from Relish and her cigarettes!

Anne is survived by her daughters, Jacqueline Freeman Bullington and her husband Jed Phillip Bullington, Lynne Freeman Schiller and her fiancé James Jerry Coleman, grandchildren, Patrick Lewis Schiller, Andrew Kingsley Schiller, Zackery Freeman Bullington, William Henry Schiller, Jr., Melanie Schiller Seidel and husband Tim Seidel, great grandchildren Cambre Michelle Schiller, Cash Freeman Seidel, Duke Hughes Seidel and former son-in-law William Henry Schiller and his wife Judy and Mother-in-law, Mavis Freeman. Anne loved her niece, Katherine Haggerty Moran and her nephews, Cash Haggerty, Harvey Scott Graham and recently departed nephew Raines Haggerty.

Anne is preceded in death by her husband, Herbert Freeman, sisters, Bettie Dowdy Haggerty and Bybe Dowdy Graham. Anne also considered her husband Herbert’s sisters and brother as her sisters and brother too: Mayson Ross, Judy Dunson, Jean Bernholz, Button McHone, Susan Freeman Kempling, Skipper Miller, Ginger Brezac and Stuart Freeman.

Anne died peacefully in her sleep early Monday morning of March 14th, 2022, after firefighters rescued her from her home. The fire broke out due to electrical failure. Her daughters, Jackie and Lynne, were able to have a loving conversation with her before she passed away. Anne said, “I am not in any pain, and I love my two wonderful daughters” and that is how we must remember our wonderful mother, grandmother, aunt, sister and friend. In our mom’s final hours, that was her gift to us, the silver lining of a tragic and accidental loss.

We love you, respect you and admire your strength and love and even in your life’s final moments, you were kind, thoughtful, funny and tough, a pillar of strength- our Mom.

Family and friends are invited to a memorial service and celebration of life at 3:30PM on Saturday, May 14th, 2022 at the home of Jackie, Jed and Zack Bullington located at 662 Manchester Drive, Raleigh, NC 27609. We are sure our mom would have wanted everyone to dress comfortably and casually as the service will be conducted outside. Seating is available.

In lieu of flowers, please consider contributing to a ‘Donation Account for Tiara Carroll’ at Wells Fargo. (Please contact your local Wells Fargo branch for details on how to make a donation.) The account was established for Tiara, Anne’s friend, caregiver, bar tender, chef, dance instructor, exercise instructor and CNA, whose family suffered a total loss of residence because they lived in the same apartment building. Tiara lost her home, her job and her dear friend. We know our mom would want us to help Tiara and her kind, heroic boyfriend Kendell along with Tiara’s three amazing sons, Isaac, DJ and Tavion.