Donna Freeman, Bodega Bay 'force of nature,' dies at 72
Published: Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 5:37 p.m.
Last Modified: Saturday, October 31, 2009 at 5:37 p.m.
She looked like a pretty pixie, down to the rosy cheeks and twinkle in her eyes. She was everybody's friend or favorite auntie, prodigiously passing out hugs and kisses and “Honey's” that invited instant intimacy.
But Donna Cook Freeman, who drifted into the fishing village of Bodega Bay 50 years ago as a poor and lonely young fisherman's wife with two tots and another on the way, became a powerful force of nature along the Sonoma coast.
The effervescent maven of west county politics whose picturesque Compass Rose Garden was the center of political fund-raisers and get-togethers, community celebrations and countless life events from weddings to memorials, died Friday at home in Bodega Bay surrounded by her family. She was 72.
Freeman, whose health had been fragile from a heart condition, was diagnosed with advanced liver cancer three weeks ago.
In characteristic fashion, Freeman had hoped her health would hold and she could have another gathering in the storybook garden she carved out of a canyon choked with scrub brush and brambles en route to Bodega Head. Even as she was dying, she was imagining one last celebration — this one of her own remarkable life — even if she could be there in spirit only.
Working her phone and bulging address book, Freeman intuitively understood networking before it became an Internet buzzword.
Her network of loyal friends was so extensive and she had touched so many people that in the last two weeks of her life she received at least 150 visitors.
“It was the most incredible thing. It was standing room only in this small house at times,” said her daughter, Melissa Freeman of Bodega Bay.
Her first big cause was joining the effort to block PG&E from building a nuclear power plant on Bodega Head in the early ‘60s. She later served on the Coastal Commission's advisory board on the Local Coastal Plan. She pressed for a benefit assessment to bring advanced paramedics to the Bodega Bay Fire Protection District and later served on the fire board, three years as president.
She was the founding chairwoman of the Bodega Bay Fisherman's Festival, served years as president and a director of the Chamber of Commerce, and was a director of the Sonoma County Fair for 10 years.
Described as the “Mother Ship” of Bodega Bay, she used her high-wattage personality to galvanize people behind even seemingly hopeless causes, like persuading lawmakers to fund Spud Point Marina at a time when the ailing fishing industry was on no one's political agenda.
“I don't lean,” she reflected in her last days. “I push.”
Close friend Heidi Gillen, an administrative aide to former Supervisor Mike Reilly and former Assemblyman Dan Hauser, described Freeman as feisty but kind and loads of fun.
“She fought for things she cared about and she was devoted to coming up with creative ways to make a difference in the world by going to the people who are our leaders and convincing them that her way was the best. And most of the time it was.”
Freeman served on the Democratic State Central Committee and marshalled support for countless local candidates. She managed the election campaign of former supervisor Ernie Carpenter.
It is also a spiritual place to many. Freeman invited friends and community members to plant memorial trees like the redwood placed by schoolmates of Nicholas Green, the 7-year-old Bodega Bay boy killed in Italy in 1994. Newlyweds put up birdhouses or left a tree to mark their day.
Born in Hon, Ark. during The Great Depression, Freeman spent her early years without electricity or flush toilets. Clothes were cut from feed sacks. But she learned valuable lessons about neighborliness and bringing people together over good food and laughter and she would draw on them her whole life.
When she was a teen-ager, the family moved west, settling in Tracy. She married Clarence Freeman when she was 16. The couple moved to Bodega Bay in 1959.
Freeman worked a number of jobs over the years, from real estate to running a gas station to working at the Bodega Marine Laboratory.
She was an extra in Alfred Hitchcock's film, “The Birds,” and even salvaged a gazebo that was a film prop and proudly put the souvenir in her garden.
Said another daughter, Melinda Freeman—McLees of Forestville, who managed the garden for her mother, “She was very vibrant, vivacious and extraodinary. She never just settled for anything. She was fearless...just a golden spirit.”
Friends are invited to attend Funeral Services at 11 a.m. Friday, November 6 at
Hessel Union Church, 5060 Hessel Ave. Sebastopol. Visitation will be from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 5, at Pleasant Hills Memorial Park, 1700 Pleasant Hill Rd., Sebastopol. Interment will be at Calvary Cemetery in Bodega,.
Online condolences may be made at www.cheda-lyons.com.
The family suggests contributions to Hospice by the
Bay, Hanna Boy's Center in Sonoma or to the Bodega Cemetery.
In addition to her husband and daughters, she is survived by her sons, Scott Freeman of Arizona and Kevin Freeman and Steve Freeman of Bodega Bay; a brother, James Cook, and a sister, Dorothy Cook, both of Oregon, and seven grandchildren.
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