Rose Clare Bridges Freeman -- County Circuit Court Clerk

 

 

 

Rose Clare Bridges Freeman

Rose Clare Bridges was born January 15, 1932 in Trigg County, Kentucky. She was the oldest of two children born to John Carl Bridges and Julia Thomas Bridges. Carl and Julia were both natives of Trigg County. Carl was a farmer and a mechanic and was grandson of Cullen Bridges.  Julia was a descendant of Starkie Thomas. Rose’s brother was Carl Trice “Bunny” Bridges, born in 1934 and married Shelvia Jean Curling.

Rose grew up in Trigg County and graduated from Trigg County High School in 1949.  She went on to attend Bethel Women’s College and the Hopkinsville Community College. While attending Bethel she met and married her first husband, Bruce Maxwell Stanley, Jr. on April 21, 1950.  Bruce was a sergeant at nearby Ft. Campbell, Kentucky.  This marriage ended in divorce.

On June 27, 1959, Rose married her second husband, Samuel Dell Freeman, Jr. in a ceremony at her aunt’s home in Cadiz. Dell was born on January 30, 1931 in Christian County, Kentucky, the son of Samuel Dell Freeman, Sr. and Icelona Tyline Mitchell Freeman.  His father was a native of Trigg County and his mother a native of Lyon County.

After their marriage, Rose and Dell lived on a farm in Trigg County, and in 1963 they moved to Todd County where Dell became a livestock dealer and was part owner of the Kentucky-Tennessee Livestock Market in Guthrie, Kentucky which was affiliated with the Union Stockyard in Nashville. Rose became a poll worker and was later elected to the Guthrie City Council, where she gained her first experience working in local government. In 1970, the Freemans returned to their farming operations in Trigg County while Dell continued to commute to the stockyards in Guthrie and Nashville.

After returning to Trigg County Rose was employed at the U.S. Army Training Center at Fort Campbell, at Barkley  Dam and the Lake Barkley Acquisition Project and at the  101st  Airborne  Division  Dental Clinic at Fort Campbell. In November 1977 Rose became the Chief Deputy to the Trigg County Circuit Clerk in and in 1982 she was elected to a six-year term as the Trigg Circuit Clerk, serving until 1988.

Rose had two children by her first husband, Brenda Susan Maxwell, born in 1951 and married Danny James Taylor and later married William David Bellar and Jackie Woodson Oliver; and Bruce Stanley Maxwell, III, born in 1952 and died in a motorcycle accident in 1969.  Rose and Dell were the parents of three children, Carla Ann Freeman, born in 1960 and married Nathan Gregory Jones; Samuel Dell Freeman, III, born in 1961 and married Mary F. Bartee; and Smith Taylor Freeman, born in 1962 and married Jerri Lee DeLoach.

Dell died on February 19, 2009 at the age of 78 at the Western Baptist Hospital in Paducah, Kentucky. He was buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery in Trigg County. Rose died at the age of 91 on September 10, 2023 in Eddyville, Kentucky. She was buried in the Starkie Thomas Cemetery next to her husband.

 Rose Clare Freeman

 Rose and Dell Jr.

LINEAGE: (Rose Clare Bridges was the daughter of John Carl and Julia Bell Thomas Bridges. John Carl was the fifth child of John Trice and Maggie Dora Cunningham Bridges. John Trice was the sixth child of Cullen T. and Virgina Thomas Bridges.  Cullen was the twelfth child of William and Mary Thomas Bridges.  William was the fourth child of Drury and Charity Cohoon Bridges.  Julia Bell was the first child of Smith and Ida Mae Meador Thomas.  Smith was the third child of Jonathan Starkie and Julia Dyer Thomas. Jonathan was the third child of William Bridges and Nancy Jane Rogers Thomas. William was the first child of Starkie and Mary Bridges Thomas. Starkie was the fourth child of James and Mary Standley Thomas. Virginia Thomas was the third child of Peyton and Sarah Ethridge Thomas. Peyton was the third child of Cullen and Elizabeth Futrell Thomas.  Cullen was the first child of James and Mary Standley Thomas.)