Evelyn Freeman

Obituary For Evelyn Freeman

It is with great sadness that the family of Evelyn Marie Henderson Freeman of Durham, NC, announces her death, after a long period of palliative and hospice care, on the 25th of February 2020, at the Pettigrew Rehabilitation Center in Durham.

Evelyn was born in Chicago, IL, January 27, 1920, and spent her early years in Chicago and other parts of Illinois. She lived in western Pennsylvania for 55 years and moved to Durham in 2005. At the time of her passing, Evelyn was 100 years old.

Evelyn lived a life of religious service for most of her time on earth. Her adult life was spent as an A.M.E. churchwoman, including the work that was dearest to her heart—playing piano and organ, and directing church choirs. Additionally, she found much of her life’s pleasures in organizing and participating in regular church service activities especially during the more than 50 years that she spent as a pastor’s wife in various churches in Illinois and Pennsylvania. It was during those years of her life that she discovered that she enjoyed public speaking about religious and civic topics and organizing youth activities.

Evelyn was the core of a wide network of friends back in the Pittsburgh, PA area along with her extended family circle—a network and circle with which she spent many of her Durham years speaking and corresponding. To add to that large group of close friends and loved ones, she discovered late in her life that she loved cats and would proudly refer to herself as cat staff for the two felines in the home she shared with her daughter for most of her 15 years in Durham.

Evelyn is survived by son Thomas Henderson (Loretta) of Alexandria, VA; son Granville Henderson (Elizabeth) of New Kensington, PA; daughter Wahneema Lubiano of Durham, NC; and son Lother Henderson (Karen) of Tampa, FL. Her descendants include 14 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren, and 5 great-great grandchildren.

Evelyn was preceded in death by her parents, Jacob and Laura Henderson; by four of her children, Leonard Henderson, Lester Henderson, Phyllis Olivari, and Zoeain Henderson; by two grandchildren, Thomas Henderson and Eric Henderson; and by her husbands, Ben Moore—father of Leonard, Lester, Phyllis, Thomas, and Granville; Thomas S. Henderson—father of Wahneema, Lother, and Zoeain; and Frederick D. Freeman—with whom she had no children.

A memorial service will be held Saturday, March 14 at 11:00am at the American Cremation and Funeral Services’ chapel in Durham NC.

For anyone wishing to send flowers, please send instead a donation to the Animal Protection Society of Durham, NC (https://www.apsofdurham.org/), or to a charitable interest of your own choosing.