- Date Of Birth: October 28, 1929
- Date Of Death: December 17, 2012
- State: Florida
Mrs. Freda Alice (Root) McClean, 83, of Navarre, Fla., died Dec. 17, 2012, at The Grace Care Center in Cypress, Texas, after suffering a stroke. She was receiving cancer treatment at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Freda was born on Oct. 28, 1929, in Douglas, W.V., the quintessential “Coal Miner’s Daughter” of the late Julius and Lessie Root. Following her graduation from Thomas High School in 1947 and facing limited career prospects in a coal mining town, she packed her bags and rode the bus to Washington, D.C. After completing a secretarial course, Freda worked at the FBI for three years before transferring to the CIA for a small pay raise. An arranged blind date introduced her to the love of her life, Annapolis midshipman John Howard McClean, “Mac.” Freda and Mac were married after his graduation on June 20, 1953, in the chapel at Annapolis. Mac accepted a commission into the U.S. Air Force, and the first few years of their young marriage were spent traveling to various air bases in Missouri, Oklahoma, and Georgia while Mac trained to be a pilot. Freda and Mac were thrilled to settle in California where Mac was invited by the Air Force to pursue a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering at Stanford University. This time was always remembered fondly by Freda, who pursued their three small boys and ran the household in order to allow Mac the time needed for studies and the usual U.S. Air Force temporary duty assignments. Although the boys outnumbered Freda, they never outlasted her patience or devotion.
After graduation, Freda and Mac received their new assignment to Mary Esther, Fla., where Mac continued his pilot training at Eglin. During these years, Mac was sent to Vietnam, but sadly, on a fateful day in August 1963, Mac’s B-26 crashed due to wing failure. The tragedy devastated the family, but fortified by her tremendous inner strength, Freda bravely shouldered her new responsibilities as a single parent and entered the job market. Freda managed to provide a rich and interesting childhood for her sons, juggling work as a secretary with little league, basketball, swimming lessons, and school activities. She never knew what surprise might await her at the end of the workday; it could be a pot of live crabs scrabbling on the stove top or a broken arm needing to be set. Freda realized her secretarial career would not support much of a retirement, and so enrolled in college classes as soon as her boys were old enough to look after one another in the evening. Freda persevered through ten years of juggling work, her boys’ own university educations, and eventually completed her Bachelor’s of Science from Troy University. Soon after, she was promoted to a contract administrator for an Eglin weapons program. This prompted her proud grandchildren to tell their classmates “after beginning her career as a special agent for the FBI and CIA, my Grandmother is now an arms dealer.” This was not far from the truth, since Freda made numerous trips to Israel, Germany, France and even Australia as a member of the negotiating teams who were charged with selling weapon technologies to America’s allies. A pretty neat trick for a “coal miner’s daughter!”
Freda finally learned to relax in her new found leisure, and pursued her passions of Atlanta Braves baseball, gardening, and golf.
Freda is survived by her three sons, Donald (Delores), Bill (Kathleen) and Jerry (Tami); and six grandchildren, David, James, John, Jarrod (Anh), Jennifer (Bryan) and Shannon.
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