Germantown woman was dedicated to helping children

TRACEY Waddell Freeman excelled in the delicate world of foster care and adoption, always concerned with the children and the adults who wanted them.

"She was the consummate worker, full of energy, passion and fortitude," her family said. "She gained the trust of her clients in their often delicate circumstances."

Tracey discovered early in her life the need to help children, and she worked with youngsters through her church, both in child care and with older young people, whom she guided with her gift of love and caring.

Tracey Freeman, who also held jobs with the Social Security Administration and the IRS, sometimes holding down two jobs at once in her desire to be independent and productive, died Saturday of respiratory complications. She was 44 and lived in Germantown.

"Starting as child-care provider at St. Stephens Methodist Church in the late '80s introduced Tracey to her career path," said her aunt, Denise Freeman Mullins. "Her delight in working with children led her to an advertisement for a position at Children's Choice. The foster-care agency afforded an opportunity for her and stability for herself and her son, James."

Children's Choice was founded in Chester in 1982 by the Rev. Drs. William and Carolyn Eberwein, longtime social workers who were concerned that too many children of their clients were frozen in the same welfare-dependent trap that held their parents. Using dedicated workers like Tracey Freeman, they sought to break the chain.

At her later church, Foster Memorial Baptist, her pastor, the Rev. Lawrence O. Crawford Sr., saw Tracey's gift for working with the young and made her youth administrator.

"She created an environment of caring and accountability for the church's youth," her family said. "It was not unusual for Tracey to show up at a youngster's school for a chat with the teacher."

Her son, James Elijah Freeman, said, "My mom was always high on education but did not see herself as college material. But in 2006, at the prompting of Dr. Carolyn Eberwein, she applied to and was accepted at Peirce College."

Tracey proved to herself and others that she was not only college material, but could excel at her studies. She graduated last June with honors and a bachelor's degree in business management.

"I was so proud of her," James said.

She was born to Jacqueline V. Freeman and Paul Perkins. She graduated from Murrell Dobbins High School in 1986, and went on to Berean Institute, where she earned an associate's degree.

"My sister was a trooper," said her brother, Lawrence Darrell Freeman. "She became pregnant while still in high school, giving birth to my nephew, James Elijah, in 1984. She got a job at the Social Security Administration in order to handle her responsibilities. Her whole desire was not to be a burden and to make a good life for herself and her son."

Tracey spent time in the South, where as a child she attended summer revival meetings held by her great-grandmother's church, First Baptist, in Jarratt, Va. At the age of 11, her aunt said, Tracey followed Southern church tradition by walking to the Mourner's Bench. (The bench is placed at the front of revival gatherings to accommodate mourners and repentant sinners.)

"Tracey was Northern-born and Southern-bred," said her aunt. "The influence of her mother and my parents, Amelia and the late Lawrence Walker Freeman, exemplified the village concept of raising children."

She is survived by her son and brother and a friend, Barrington Forrester.

Services: 10 a.m. Saturday at Foster Memorial Baptist Church, 18th and York streets. Friends may call at 8 a.m. Entombment will be held at Ivy Hill Cemetery.