Alaire Freeman
June 19, 1929 – Aug. 5, 2010

Alaire Freeman died Aug. 5, 2010 at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham, Wash. She was 81.

Alaire was born in Madeira, Calif., to Henry and Mary (Schmitt) McMullin. They lived several places in Montana before moving to Johnson County, Wyo., in 1940.

She rode horseback to school as a middle-schooler and in high school boarded with her future mother-in-law. Alaire married Parish Freeman in 1948 and they had one daughter.

Alaire worked as her father’s right-hand man on farms, as a wrangler for a hunting and fishing guide, at a cleaners, and as a rancher’s wife. In 1956, she began teaching and taught in one-room and small-town schools in Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, and Friday Harbor, Wash., where she taught second- and third-graders for 10 years.

Alaire returned to Buffalo, Wyo., in 1974 and worked as a substitute teacher, U.S. census taker, and assistant activities director at a nursing home.

Some of her many passions were gardening, Grange, square dancing, wildflowers, hunting, fishing, and sharing these interests with others. Travels with her daughter included five of the Hawaiian Islands and cruises to the Caribbean, Alaska, and Panama Canal.

Alaire moved from Buffalo, Wyo., to Ferndale, Wash., in March of this year to be near family.

Alaire is survived by her daughter, Lynn Schuman of Ferndale, Wash.,; grandson, Daniel Schuman and his wife Becky of Mount Vernon, Wash.; grandson, Jeremy (Jake) Schuman and his wife Cathy of Ferndale, Wash.; great-grandchildren Audrey, Dane (Mount Vernon), and Abigail (Ferndale) Schuman; sister-in-law, Winifred McMullin of Glendive, Mont.; and her long-time partner Charles Morris of Buffalo, Wyo.

Alaire was preceded in death by her parents, former husband, brothers, and son-in-law, Dan Schuman.

A service of remembrance will be Aug. 28 at Hovander Homestead Park in Ferndale, Wash., at 3 p.m. with an after party at Lynn Schuman’s home.

— Family of Alaire Freeman