Freddie Lee Windsor

On June 3, 1971, the energy and love here on earth shifted as Freddie Lee Windsor was born in Columbia, Missouri to Arvel and Noella (Graves) Windsor. He was the youngest of the family with siblings, Wesley (Melissa) Graves, Lolita Windsor and Carla (Aaron) Rankins. He loved to tell stories of his childhood with his brother and sisters when they lived on 12th Street and when they would spend summers visiting their grandma, Sadie Graves and family in Montgomery City, Missouri. Freddie would share how he would grumble at how long church services were when he was growing up, yet he was so thankful for his upbringing at Mission Temple Church and its positive and profound impact on his life.

Freddie attended Des Moines Public Schools from the time he was a small child until he graduated from Hoover High School in 1990. While at Hoover he was active in sports and loved being on the diving team and running track. He was especially proud of his record-breaking performance in the long jump at State Track. After graduation, he attended Knoxville College in Tennessee declaring a major in Physical Education. When he returned to Iowa, he enjoyed life with family and friends, working, socializing, riding his bike everywhere two wheels would take him, and coaching at the local YMCA. This is also the time when he was introduced to fatherhood. He had a daughter, Mia, and son, Jayden, both whom he loved dearly. He was always so happy to get to spend his time with them having fun and teaching them life’s lessons from childhood to adulthood. He had another son, Tony, and although he didn’t live with Freddie, he surely cared about him as well. The times spent together with his “big kids” were special to Freddie.

Along life’s journey, Freddie met Cindy in 2002 and they married in 2011. They were set to celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary in June. Their union brought one son into the world, Zion, whom he simply adored. He could not have found anything he loved more than being a daddy to Zion. He took advantage of every opportunity to love his son fiercely. Freddie took pride in being married and loved having a child with his wife. Freddie and Cindy shared a beautiful life and devoted love together for 18 years.

Freddie loved his family hard. He would do anything for his children and wife. He loved to have fun with them in the yard, on a trip, riding bikes, going sledding, playing games, or going to the movies. He didn’t need to be doing anything in particular, he just loved sharing space and his time with them. Loving his family also meant loving his parents. He was always grateful to his father for teaching him what it means to love Jesus and to have a faith-filled life. He was especially close to his mother, spending time with her nearly every day, checking in on her, laughing with her, and turning to her for advice. He cherished his siblings and loved being around them, helping them when they called, and being the one they could count on no matter the circumstance. He was delighted in his many nieces and nephews, and great nieces and nephews, on both his side of the family and his wife’s. He loved to teach them new things, make them laugh, and cheer them on in their endeavors. Freddie had plenty of love to share and his affection for family extended to his in-laws, cousins, aunts and uncles. His love ran deep for his friends and was blessed to have friendships that were a brotherhood. Many friends he still had from childhood, middle school, and his high school days. He’d light up whenever he saw them. It wasn’t just old friends, it was the ones he met along the way. He poured goodness into all of them.

Freddie loved being outdoors to camp, hike trails, fish, fly kites, shoot hoops in the driveway, play catch with the football, bike ride (his favorite were the single-track dirt trails--the more logs to jump the better) or just sit on the stoop outside his house to chat with friends on the phone, listen to music, or think, pray, and watch the traffic go by. He spent 25 plus years coaching and loved every practice and game. He coached flag football and basketball at the YMCA for too many years to count and spent nine years coaching middle school boys’ and girls’ basketball, volleyball, boys’ and girls’ soccer, and boys’ and girls’ track. He spent one year at a local high school coaching the sprinters and long jumpers for the boys’ track and field team as well as coaching and mentoring the boys’ basketball team. Freddie would spend hours preparing for practices for even his youngest athletes at the Y, drawing up plays and routes and searching online for the best drills. Time spent with youth in the community or in the schools blessed his life greatly. Freddie also couldn’t get enough of being at the gym. He could spend hours playing basketball, lifting weights, and training for events like the Transplant Games of America. He competed with Team Iowa in the 2016 and 2018 Transplant Games. He medaled in the 100m dash, 4 x 100, high jump, long jump and with his teams in basketball and volleyball. He never met a competition he didn’t like, and he never passed up an opportunity to talk about the Transplant Games and the gift of organ donation. Freddie also spent a lot of his time yelling at the TV during NFL, NBA, college football, and March Madness seasons. He loved watching football, basketball, UFC, and track and field with Zion, but even more, he loved coaching Zion and watching him develop as a young athlete. Freddie was looking forward to watching him compete in sports, as he grew older. He would have been, no doubt, the one shouting the loudest encouragement and praise from the stands.

On Friday, November 20, 2020, the love and energy shifted once again, and after a valiant eight years of battling heart and kidney failure, Freddie, with his wife by his side, was called home where we can be confident in believing he fell to his knees when he met Jesus and then got back up again to run into his mother’s arms. I am quite certain he also found Steve, his heart and kidney donor, and wrapped his arms around him to thank him many times over for all the extra years he was given to live, laugh, and love with us. Anyone that knew Freddie will remember his generous heart, boundless love, committed faith, ability to story-tell, and ridiculous and silly sense of humor. He will be forever missed by all of his friends and family who loved and treasured him to no end. Well done, Freddie. Fly high.

Visitation will be from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday, November 29, 2020 at McLaren’s Chapel, 801 – 19th Street in West Des Moines. Funeral services will be held 11 a.m. Monday, November 30, 2020 at Hope + Elim Church in Des Moines. In lieu of flowers, memorials can be directed to the family for a future designation.