Judith Hale Freeland

Coleman Funeral Home of Oxford Judith Hale Freeland, 92, died at Baptist Memorial Hospital Friday June 18, 2021, in Oxford, MS. A private graveside service will be Sunday, June 27, 2021, at Oxford Memorial Cemetery. Wil Howie will officiate. Coleman Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Born on December 5, 1928, in Glastonbury, CT, to a family of proud Yankees who traced their New England roots to the second boat after the Mayflower, Mrs. Freeland was lured to the Deep South by her lifelong love, T.H. “Hal” Freeland III. He was a Navy man and she a Delta Airlines ticket agent when they met by chance at a Florida beach and she hopped in his MG convertible for a 67-year adventure. After a week of dating she accepted his proposal to become a small-town Mississippi lawyer’s wife and soon found herself in a sleepy college burg on the verge of being at the center of America’s reckoning with segregation and Civil Rights. She adapted to her adopted home of Oxford, where she raised four children and helped run her husband’s law practice as bookkeeper and arch observer of comings and goings in the oldest law office in Mississippi. But she corrected almost anyone who used the term “Yankee” as a slur within earshot, and she never surrendered her Northern essentials: a city subscription to the New York Times (until the newspaper forced her to accept their national edition); current charge cards for Macy’s (and Gimbels, ‘til that store expired); lox when she could persuade the Jitney Jungle to stock it or get it shipped in from the Grand Central Station Oyster Bar; and an aversion to sweet tea, cornbread dressing, or any Christmas tree but Scotch pine or Douglas Fir. Mrs. Freeland was an avid trout fisherman, eschewing her husband’s fly-fishing fixation in favor of spinning rods that caught more fish. She collected and consumed cookbooks as eagerly as she devoured true-crime books and mysteries, Oxford gossip, and evening toddies. She learned to say Hotty Toddy with enthusiasm, especially for winning Ole Miss basketball teams, but she also held affection for Mount Holyoke College, where she studied for two years before continuing her education as a lifelong autodidact. She always nudged her Hal to be nice, mostly overlooking his tendency to cuss and fuss ‘til the end, when she gave him the last word. Survivors include son Hale Freeland (Cynthia) of Oxford, MS; daughter, Lee Freeland Hancock (Steve) of Sewanee, TN; grandchildren Sarah Simonson (Brian) of New Orleans, LA; T.H. Freeland V of Birmingham, AL; Catherine Freeland (Dan Ventricelli) of Philadelphia, PA; Staff Sgt. (USAF) Jason Freeland of Columbus, GA; Erin Hancock of Edinburgh, Scotland; Mabry Freeland of Westerfield, OH; and daughters-in-law Joyce Freeland of Atlanta, GA; and Elizabeth Landingham of Westerfield, OH. She is preceded in death by her husband and sons Robert Laurence Freeland and Thomas Henry “Tom” Freeland IV. Memorials may be made in memory of Judy Freeland to the University of Mississippi Foundation, Innocence Project at the Ole Miss Law School, 406 University Avenue Oxford, MS 38655. Online condolences may be left at www.colemanfuneralhome.com.

Judith Hale Freeland

December 5, 1928 - June 18, 2021

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