Dr. George W. Freas

A longtime veternarian and community leader in Franklin  Dr. George W. Freas  died Monday, Sept. 13, 2010 at his residence. He was 89.

Dr. Freas served in the U.S. Army Air Corps as a B17 pilot and was shot down over the French-German border during World War II. He was taken in by the French Underground and was declared dead by the U.S. Army until the Germans reported him as a prisoner-of-war months later.

A graduate of the University of Kentucky, he received a doctor of veterinary medicine degree from Ohio State University and returned to Franklin to begin his practice in 1952. He continued his practice at the Franklin Veterinary Clinic until his retirement in 1994. He was also a farmer.

Dr. Freas was active in the community, serving as the first chairman of the Franklin-Simpson Fair Board, serving two terms on the Simpson County Board of Education, working with the F-S Good Samaritan program, serving as an elder at the Franklin Presbyterian Church for 50 years and serving on the Franklin Lions Club for 55 years. He had perfect attendance at Lions Club meetings for 25 years. He exemplified what Lions Club was all about. He was low key, and he let his actions speak for him. His love for the Lions Club and community was unsurpassed, said Jeff Moody, a former district governor and two-time president of the Franklin Lions Club. A community cant replace a guy like that. He will be missed.

Dr. Freas was also a life member of the University of Kentucky Alumni Association and the Kentucky Veterinary Medicine Association. He was a longtime member and historian for the Simpson American Legion Post 62.

A native of Logan County, KY., Dr. Freas was the son of the late William Leslie Freas and the late Beulah Stradtner Freas of Franklin. He was preceded in death by his wife, Audrey Freas; four brothers, W.L. Buck, David, Charles and Carl Freas; and one sister, Agnes Green.

Survivors include two daughters, Leatha Kendrick of East Point and Lexington, Ky. and Dr. Carol D. Freas of Charleston, W.Va.; two sons, George W. Chip Freas of Huntsville, Ala. and John R. Freas of Franklin; four sisters, Helen Thornton of Bowling Green, Elizabeth Brown of Portland, Tenn., Lois Law of Morgantown, Ky. and Estelle Hanley of Franklin; eight grandchildren; Leslie Kendrick, Eliza K. Strickland, Jacob Pollock, Lealah Pollock, Lyda Kendrick, Joseph Pollock, Alex Freas and Gabriel Pollock; one great grandchild Solomon Schwartzman and several nieces and nephews.