Lon Earl Freeman

Lon Earl Reed Freeman, 84, passed away May 3, 2026, at his home in Bear, Arkansas. He was born the third of five children, on July 7, 1941, in Hot Springs to C.T. “Bo” and Lorene Freeman. He graduated from Lakeside High School in 1960 and joined the Navy immediately after. When he returned home, he sought and won the heart of Barbara Thurman, whom he married in 1965 and with whom he spent the next 61 years and raised a family. 

Having attended New Hope Missionary Baptist Church on Shady Grove Road from childhood, he earned a bachelor’s degree in Bible languages from the Missionary Baptist Seminary in Little Rock in 1972 and then pastored churches in Mena, Arkansas; Marshall, Arkansas; and Bartlesville, Oklahoma. In later years he was an active member of and Sunday School teacher at New Hope Baptist and then Piney Baptist Church on Albert Pike Road. He was also an active member of the Gideons for several years. 

Lon was a Renaissance man and had a variety of additional careers throughout his life, from delivering R.C. Cola and Borden’s Milk and working as a medical lab technician as a young man, and later holding multiple positions for ChemFab, where he worked for over twenty-five years and set up their first metallurgical lab. But his favorite career was after retirement, when he had the time to pursue his many interests and utilize his many skills at his dream home in Bear, Arkansas, where he lived with his wife, surrounded by their family, since 1995. 

He is predeceased by his parents, Chalmer “Bo” and Lorene Freeman, an infant sister Katherine Louise, his brother and sister-in-law Leon and Jo Freeman, and four other siblings-in-law. 

He is survived by his wife of 61 years, Barbara Thurman Freeman; his daughter Joy Freeman; his daughter and son-in-law April and Rob McGee; his grandchildren, Darby McGee, Jackson and Kaylee McGee, Kenzie McGee, and Quincy Adams; his great-grandchildren, Rowan Billingsley and Bobby D. McGee; his sister Nancy Howell (widow of Bob), his brother and sister-in-law, Naaman Dean and Nikki Freeman, his brother-in-law Clarence Thurman (widower of Doris), sister-in-law Jean Kazimier (widow of Henry), brother-in-law Jimmy Thurman (widower of Marie), and sister- and brother-in-law Sandy and Boots Pitman. 

Arrangements by Arkansas Cremation, 10515 W Markham St, Suite B1, Little Rock, Arkansas 72205. If you would like to leave a message of condolence to the family, you may do so using the Guestbook section.

www.arkansascremation.com