LUCILLE MARANDA SCHILDKNECHT FREED

Fort Worth, Texas - Lucille S. Freed left her worldly life on July 29.

A Memorial Service will be held at 2 pm Saturday, August 12, in the Chapel at the Trinity Terrace, 1600 Texas Street.  She will be buried with her late husband at Arlington National Cemetery at a date to be determined.

Lucille was born in and grew up in Louisville, Kentucky, a child of the Great Depression. Steeped in Kentucky tradition, as a girl she loved horses, was an enthusiastic equestrienne, and went to the races at Churchill Downs as often as she could get away with it. As an adult she was known for her elaborate Kentucky Derby parties, complete with fancy hats and mint juleps.

Near the end of World War II, she met and married the love of her life, a young Army Lieutenant, Cleo S. Freed, who was about to ship off to Germany and the war.  Her insular Kentucky life transformed in ways beyond imagination. 

Lucille was a strong, courageous woman who sent her husband off to war three times (WWII, Korea, Viet Nam), joined him in Germany during the occupation at the end of WWII, and managed fourteen family moves over thirty years.  

The peripatetic life of an Army wife reinforced her sense of adventure and her creativity. She was ever ready to start something new, go somewhere exotic, start a new project, or take on a volunteer leadership role.  

She was the epitome of southern hospitality, an accomplished seamstress, a gracious hostess, and a powerful and inspiring mentor to the young wives of soldiers under her husband’s command.  She was a deeply beloved daughter, sister, and mother.

The family would like to acknowledge and express their gratitude to the kind, caring and professional staff of the Memory Care unit at Trinity Terrace in Fort Worth.

She was preceded in death by her husband, Cleo S. Freed (Col, USA, Ret.) of Arlington, Virginia; her parents, Henry Conrad Schildknecht and Ida Schildknecht (nee Jones); her sister, Aline Barker, and brother Lloyd Henry Schildknecht, all of Louisville, Kentucky.

Lucille’s survivors include her two daughters, Deborah, and Linda Freed, both of Fort Worth, Texas; grandchildren, Philip Conrad Freed-Golden of Clarksville, Tennessee, and Katie Higgins (Jorge Gonzales Sosa) of Merida, Mexico; and two great-granddaughters, Cecilia Gonzales Higgins of Dallas, Texas, and Sofia Gonzales Higgins of San Antonio, Texas.