Mary Freeman

Heaven has welcomed home another angel! Mary Margaret (Margo) Newman Freeman was freed from the challenges of a mortal body on February 7, 2024 in Springville, Utah and at the age of 85. She was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado to Henry Levi and Antoinette Dangler Newman. Margo enjoyed an ideal childhood. Her family lived just outside of Colorado Springs at a private boys school where her dad worked as an esteemed coach. During summer, the family lived on Nantucket Island where she watched the ocean from their home on the bluff, ate seafood, swam at the beach, chased rabbits, played tennis, acted in community theater, and gathered with old friends and neighbors, some relationships going back generations.

Margo met and married John Edmund Freeman while he was serving in the Army in Colorado Springs. She was a devoted wife, resilient with change and challenges for she and John and their children moved often, living all over the western United States. A favorite home of theirs was in Island Park, Idaho where they shared the beautiful outdoors and a lovely community with their children and grandchildren. Through most of their life together, John and Margo kept moving; they enjoyed exploring by plane, by ship, and especially by car. A devout member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Margo served and loved unselfishly in many leadership and teaching capacities, as well as a mission at the Saint George Temple. Margo loved and taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

At one point in her life, Margo faced what doctors believed might be the return of an earlier cancer. She wrote a letter of love and solace to be shared with her mother if she passed. This letter resurfaced only recently, many years after its writing. In it she wrote: “We can be supportive of one another but we cannot bear each other’s burdens completely. And that, for me, is where my relationship with God, my Heavenly Father, comes in. I can express things to Him that I can say to no other. I believe He understands my pain and rejoices in my successes. He is very real to me though I cannot explain why. It is just a feeling deep down inside. It is a quiet confirmation that comes when I am not even looking for it.”

Margo could knit anything and she used her knitting to love others. On many occasions, she reached out to a stranger, listened to their story, and then knitted a baby blanket, a shawl, or another fitting gift for this new friend. In addition to sweaters, hats, and blankets, she knit our family together in love!

Margo is survived by her husband, John Edmund Freeman. Proud to call her mom are her four children: Robert (JaNeal), David (Debra), Karen (Chris) Gardiner, Tom (Nicole). She dearly loved her grandchildren: Nathan (Joanna), Jason (Ashley), Ryan (Rachael), Alissa (Anthony), Devin (Sophia), Jenica, Jordan, Samantha, Braxton, Hannah, Kenzie, Brayden (Alison), Brianna (Rawson), Brittany (Bryce), Parker, Payton (Kiley), Kobe (Maddie), and Camber. She took joy in her great-grandchildren: Mason, Stanley, Elizabeth, Emma, Jolene, Jensyn, Ty, Aubrey, Briggs, Camden, Joie, Taysom, Beckham, Rowen, and one more great-grandchild on the way. She is also survived by all three of her beloved siblings: Nancy (William) Ball, Alpheus (Veronique) Newman, and Barbara (Jeffrey) Wengrovius.

The family would like to thank you all for an outpouring of love and compassion during this tender time. We especially wish to thank the nurses and staff at the Ashford Assisted Living Facility in Springville, UT for their gentle care. We also wish to recognize those who were so kind and compassionate as volunteers and medical professionals with Hospice for their support, expertise and service during her last days.

Funeral services will be held Friday, February 16, 2024 at 11:00 am in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Spring Creek 21st Ward Building, 878 West Center Street, Springville, Utah where family and friends may attend a viewing from 10:00 -10:45 am prior to funeral services. Interment will be in the old Springville City Cemetery, 443 South 300 East, Springville, Utah. Condolences may be sent to the family at www.olpinmortuary.com.