Freda Bell Pickard

FREDA'S LIFE REFLECTIONS

On June 17, 1927, Dewey and Fannie Thomas had a baby girl who they named Freda Bell Thomas in Rosebud, Texas.

Growing up on a farm with ten siblings, she loved farm animals and on the weekends, Mother and her sister Lula Bell would go to juke joints to dance, in which she won several competitions!

In her early teens, mother met a dashing and handsome young man, Fred Lee Pickard and they began to court. And as the courtship grew, and before Fred headed off to war they were married on January 25, 1944. To this union five children were born.

Mother was a senior cook for The Phillip Sher Jewish Home and retired from The Rose Blumkin Home in the early 1990's.

Mother loved to sew she would make pillowcases, clothes and even curtains! She also loved volunteering, having garage sales and watching her grandkids and great grandkids.

Mother always had a garden she was known to make the best succotash with fresh vegetables from her garden.

Mother has been a faithful member of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church since 1947. She was a choir member and was ordained as a deaconess in 1993. She served faithfully until 2022 when her health began to decline.

Mother quietly responded to God's loving and merciful invitation to come home on Monday, April 24, 2023.

Mother was preceded in death by her husband; Fred L. Pickard, daughter; JoAnn Starks, son; Al Pickard Sr., grandson; Keith H. Pickard, her parents and 10 siblings.

Left to cherish Mother's precious memories are her 3 strong daughters, Linda Newsome, Ivy Hill and Nancy Colbert, daughter-in-law; Lucille Pickard, eight grandchildren; Roy L. Starks Jr, Gregory Brent, Sherman E. Williams, Evelyn J. Wright, Maurice Starks, Al Pickard Jr. Marvin T. Starks, Ebonie L. Elijah and host of great grandkids and great, great grandkids. Adopted Daughters; Bobbie Jackson Moore, Terrie Jackson Miller, Earline Jackson, Bonnie Hallman, Beatrice Gilmore and Cheryl Willis, Adopted sons; Raymond A. Powell Jr., Kurt Thomas, Adopted families; The Brooks and Nobles, a host of relatives and friends.