Eloise Freed

Eloise Freed

Des Moines - Eloise Freed, of Scottish Rite Park in Des Moines, Iowa, got her wings October 24, 2018. Funeral services will be held at Immanuel Lutheran Church in Burnside on Saturday, November 17, at 2:00pm with a light luncheon following at the church. Ashes will be laid to rest in Dayton Memorial Cemetery at a later date. Arrangements have been entrusted to Gunderson Funeral Home and Cremation Services.

Eloise Ann Freed was born on January, 26, 1925 in Pawnee City, Nebraska. She was the youngest of four children born to Lena & Lloyd Matthews. Eloise graduated from Pawnee City High School in 1943 and worked in a defense plant in Beatrice, Nebraska. She attended medical lab school in Minneapolis, MN and moved to Fort Dodge, IA to work in Lutheran Hospital as a lab tech. During that time she met Dick Freed and the two were married October 3, 1948. The couple lived in Fort Dodge until they moved to Burnside where Eloise worked with Dick in the Union Trust and Savings Bank.

In 1955 their first daughter, Jann, was born followed by their second daughter, Brenda, in 1957. Eloise was a full-time mother and homemaker until her daughters were in high school when she worked at the Mr. Shop in Ft. Dodge. She worked there until the couple retired to Mesa, AZ where they lived for 32 years. In 2011, Eloise and Dick moved to Des Moines to be close to their daughter Jann and her family.

Eloise enjoyed many hobbies and activities such as sewing, knitting, crocheting, crafts, singing and soloing in the church choir, bowling, playing pool, golfing and dancing with her husband. In later life she studied the violin and painted. She was a member of the Eastern Star for 50 years and a lifelong member of the Lutheran Church.

Dick and Eloise enjoyed traveling throughout the United States, Canada and Mexico in their motor home. They also toured Europe and China. They enjoyed several cruises including cruising the intercostal waterway of Alaska with their family in celebration of their 50th wedding anniversary.

At the time of her death, Eloise and Dick had been married 70 years. She is survived by her husband Dick, daughter Jann Freed and husband John Fisher (Des Moines) and three grandsons, MacLean Freed Fisher and wife Jessica Barrett (Brooklyn, NY), Marshall Freed Fisher (San Francisco, CA) and Austin Freed Fisher (Des Moines, IA); daughter Brenda Freed and husband Michael D'Eath (Albert, TX), and several nieces and nephews. Eloise was preceded in death by her parents, brother Buster, and sisters Nadine and Mary.

In lieu of flowers, please make donations to Immanuel Lutheran Church, Burnside, IA.