Greg Freeman,
"friend of all" dies
By: Ishmael-Lateef Ahmad and Alvin A. Reid Of the St. Louis
American
Thursday, January 2, 2003
ST. LOUIS - Greg Freeman, a St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist, award-winning
TV and radio host and pillar of the St. Louis journalistic community was pronounced
dead on Tuesday (Dec. 31, 2002) following an apparent heart attack.
He began his professional
career as a reporter for the St. Louis American, and later worked for the Oakland
Press in Pontiac, Mich., and the Belleville News-Democrat.
He
joined the Post-Dispatch staff in 1980.
Freeman
was host and producer of Mosaic, an Emmy Award winning current affairs talk
show, which aired locally on PBS; and he was host of "St. Louis On The
Air" for KWMU Radio.
He was past chairman
and past president of the Press Club of Metropolitan St. Louis, past president
of the St. Louis Chapter of the Greater St. Louis Association of the Society
of Professional Journalists, and past president of the Greater St. Louis Association
of Black Journalists where he served as chairman of the organization's board
of directors at the time of his death.
He
served on the board of the St. Louis Journalism Review.
He
was an alumnus of Washington University, where he received a BA in Spanish.
Two years ago,
Freeman learned that his kidneys were failing, and that he also had contracted
Muscular Dystrophy.
Just
over a year ago, his sister, Cheryl, donated one of her kidneys to him.
Like so many,
Post-Dispatch reporter, Norm Parish, knew Freeman for many years.
"You
can't replace a Greg Freeman. Despite all his health problems he was very much
involved with the black journalists and at one point he was involved with kids,"
Parish said from a bureau office in Belleville, Ill.
"Ever
since I can remember, he was involved with the workshop. He had a great heart.
A real good heart. When (Joe) Palmer passed away, he was the person that basically
held the black journalists organization together.
"His
commentary as a journalist, that voice cannot be filled. He was a lifelong St.
Louisan and knew all the players. He truly loved St. Louis. Some journalists
will complain and be naysayers. He was always looking for solutions. He walked
the talk."
Joseph
Palmer, a founder of GSLABJ, suddenly died in 1998. Freeman replaced him as
chairman of the board of directors for the black journalists group.
Post-Dispatch Business Editor Andre Jackson, and a long-time friend of Freeman, sent an e-mail to newspaper colleagues after receiving the news from Elizabeth Freeman, Greg Freeman's wife. In her message she said she had found Freeman unresponsive on the floor this morning and called paramedics who could not revive him, Jackson said. He was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
Later, Jackson
talked to the American.
"I
feel terrible. I was in shock, as she was, and as everybody I talked to this
morning. It is truly a shock to all us. He was a great friend to many. He was
my first boss. I learned a lot from him. If (people) were half as hopeful ...
we'd be a lot better off."
At 10:30 a.m.,
the newsroom downtown held a moment of silence for Freeman. Also, Managing Editor
Arnie Robbins, spoke to staffers, Jackson said.
He
said Greg was well loved at the newspaper and the community. He said Greg considered
the P-D his second family. And he noted that Greg had fought his illnesses with
great courage and grace."
Betti Cuniberti,
another Post-Dispatch columnist, expressed her sadness.
"Greg
was just one of the last truly nice guys," Cuniberti said. "In a genre
where it is more popular to be angry, he just felt that everybody could get
along that there is good in everyone. If you were looking for someone to be
controversial just to further his own career, you couldn't look at Greg Freeman.
He believed in goodness of everyone. I'm terribly sad."
Gloria Ross, senior
vice president of public relations for the United Way of Greater St. Louis and
a member of GSLABJ, was collected but emotional upon hearing the news.
"I
lost a colleague and a friend," Ross said. "The St. Louis community
has lot the voice of reason."
Freeman was hailed
for handling his illness with valor.
"Depression?
You bet," Freeman wrote in one of his last columns.
"How
do you get that sort of news without being depressed? There wasn't much to be
done about the muscular dystrophy. But as doctors were talking to me about dialysis,
they also told me about the outside possibility of getting a kidney transplant.
They didn't want to get my hopes up about getting one, though.
"And
so on Nov. 29 of last year - just as doctors thought they were ready to put
me on dialysis - my sister and I underwent the procedure of transplanting one
of her kidneys to me. Like magic, I felt better almost immediately. And my sister?
She was up the next day and out of the hospital the next."
Freeman was 46. They had one son, Will, a college student who had studied at Columbia College, in Chicago and St. Louis Community College at Forest Park.
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