Shyrlee Arbaugh Freeman was driven by the unwavering conviction that \u201ca strong educational foundation is paramount for children of color.\u201d<\/p>\n
There were educators on both sides of the Freemans\u2019 family. Vernon\u2019s father built the school his children attended and served as its principal, as did some of his sons. Vernon\u2019s sisters all became teachers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was something that was in the genes,\u201d Lauris Freeman said.<\/p>\n
\u201c[My parents] just believed that education and community were going to be your ticket to whatever you wanted to do in life,\u201d he continued. \u201cShe just always had this innate desire to help kids because that\u2019s what her mom\u2019s primary goal was. She said \u2018You have to help the children.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Though Alzheimer\u2019s began stealing Shyrlee\u2019s memories in recent years, she often spoke of the Oak Park Preschool, where she chaired the board of directors and acted as its grant writer, and frequently thumbed through large binders of information that she had accumulated.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe was thinking about budgets and grants that didn\u2019t happen and all these things that she used to do,\u201d Lauris Freeman recalls. \u201cThese things were so deeply embedded in her, even as her brain was under attack, that it just stayed with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe preschool was her joy,\u201d Paul Freeman added. \u201cHer heart was so behind making sure that the school was funded, that the kids had things to do, that the playground and the classrooms were all up to standard. She cared about that very deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n
The preschool is run by her beloved sorority, Alpha Kappa Alpha Inc. (AKA).<\/p>\n
The Eta Gamma Omega Chapter of the AKAs will honor Shyrlee with an \u201cIvy Beyond The Wall\u201d tribute at her upcoming memorial service, acknowledging her 65 years of \u201csisterhood,\u201d a commitment that earned her \u201cpearl\u201d status.<\/p>\n
She was revered as a community gem as well. Paul Freeman remembered the positive reaction he got from classmates when they discovered he was their former teacher\u2019s son. He recalled going to a local elementary school on a call as an adult police sergeant and getting the \u201ccold shoulder\u201d from a school official until she realized who he was related to.<\/p>\n
Shyrlee A. Freeman enjoyed a close circle of friends including her prayer and piano groups. A \u201chighly spiritual\u201d person, Shyrlee was a faithful member of the Unity of Sacramento church. Its pastor, Rev. Dr. Kevin Kitrell Ross, will officiate her memorial service, as he did her husband\u2019s just 10 months ago.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shyrlee Arbaugh Freeman was driven by the unwavering conviction that \u201ca strong educational foundation is paramount for children…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299313,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[15,10238,121,123,122,10540],"class_list":["post-299312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-education","tag-obituaries","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news","tag-top-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}