Vernon Joe Freeman

Vernon Joe Freeman, beloved husband, father, grandfather, educator, public servant and 27-year veteran of the United States Armed Forces passed away peacefully on April 27, 2025 shortly after having lunch with his beloved wife Shyrlee of 69 years. He was 95 years old.

Vernon was born the 5th of eight children to Byron Arthur Freeman and Lee Anna Walton Freeman in Palestine, Texas on the 21st day of June, 1929. An increasingly confident and precocious boy, Vernon attended the Frederick Douglass Elementary school in a building previously destroyed by fire and rebuilt by his grandfather William, himself a former slave and skilled mason, along with other Palestine men. The Douglass school would see three generations of Freemans including Vernon’s grandfather William, his father Byron and brother Jack serve as principals and would instill the traits in Vernon which would become dominant themes in his life — love of community, family and education.

In 1947 after graduating from Lincoln High and completing his freshman year at Jarvis Christian College Vernon took advantage of the G.I. Bill to enlist in the Army then two years later reenlisted in the Air Force and began a lifelong career of military service which would find him stationed in bases around the world including Randolph (Texas), Peterson (Colorado Springs), Osan (Korea), Tachikawa and Yakota (Japan) and Ramstein (Germany). During this time Vernon completed his Bachelors of Arts degree in Business Commerce from the University of Maryland.

In March 1956, through the introduction of his sister Patsy, Vernon met and married Shyrlee Arbaugh, a gifted teacher and piano player from Oklahoma whose love of faith and music Shyrlee shared with Patsy while they sang together in the choir at Holman United Methodist church in Los Angeles. In 1958, Vernon and Shyrlee’s first child Norwynne Jo was born in Tokyo followed soon after by sons Paul in Colorado Springs and Lauris in San Antonio (Texas).

Over the next several years Vernon climbed Air Force ranks eventually achieving the rank of Chief Master Sergeant where he served as Senior Airman Advisor to the two-star general in command while Shyrlee, who had received her bachelor’s degree from LA State College (now Cal State Los Angeles), secured jobs teaching elementary school to students overseas along the way. The two were a productive match, enduring a life of frequent travel and relocation with their young family while building lifelong friendships and enjoying access to different peoples and cultures around the world, friendships and cultures which would have a lasting impression on Vernon and his family.

Vernon retired honorably from military service in 1973 and chose Sacramento’s South Land Park community to continue the next stage of his life in public service beginning in 1975 with the establishment of the Senior Health Day Care Center, an early prototype in adult day care between the State Office of Aging and the Sacramento Inner City Health Corporation. In 1979 Vernon, through the recommendation of his friend Dr. Jesse McClure, was appointed as Executive Director of United Christian Centers (UCC) with locations at Broderick, Del Paso Heights and Lincoln, that provided training and services for disabled, disadvantaged and underserved members of the community as a viable alternative to the institutional and social isolation these members often faced. Under Vernon’s guidance from 1979 to 1992 UCC graduated more than 1500 students who went on to be placed in unsubsidized employments at an astonishing rate of eighty to eighty-five percent.

In 1990, through a collaboration of public and private partners he established the West Sacramento Resource Center which offered job skills, housing, food, medical and social therapy and in 1991 he established a Transitional Shelter that provided up to 6 months of temporary housing for 9 families until they were able to transition into permanent housing, and a before and after school program to provide a safe place for up to 25 children ages 5-12 to do homework and have access to recreational activities under the leadership of a licensed teacher.

Always with the goal to grow his community through participation Vernon was active in many civic, social and faith organizations including Parkside Community and Christ Unity churches, National Ministries American Baptist Churches, Toastmasters, a William T. McKee Consultation Fellow, 100 Black Men of Sacramento, the Links of Sacramento, Sacramento Black Educators Association, Concerned Citizens of Greater Sacramento, the National Urban League, NAACP, Sons In Retirement Branch 69 (SIRS) where for 5 years he served as Chaplin and whose members became a trusted part of his weekly troupe of golf buddies, Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity (Chapter President, 1995) as well as being appointed to serve on the Sacramento City Unified School District Board of Education from 1979 to 1985, endorsed by his friend and neighbor Congressman Robert T. Matsui, and on which Vernon became president in 1984. His friendship with Representative Matsui would prove instrumental as Vernon, at a prayer breakfast, introduced Representative Matsui to a prominent group of Sacramento Black ministers to discuss issues relevant to the community such as youth unemployment and government assistance for small businesses, among others. Mr. Matsui would prove himself to be a worthy advocate of Vernon’s goals to strengthen and vitalize communities by providing support and services to its most vulnerable members and allowing them to create equity in their lives.

Vernon retired from public service in 1994 and enjoyed many activities with his friends and family including travel, golf outings, attending civic and social events with Shyrlee, supporting his favorite local politicians, always with a personal office visit, growing and cultivating his fruit, vegetable and flower gardens including an adventurous but regrettable foray into making home brewed plum wine (aka ‘Plumshine’), listening to his favorite jazz and gospel records which also saw Vernon, Shyrlee, his brother Byron, sisters Patsy, Mitzi and Marian traveling annually to the Monterey Jazz Festival down the coast, chatting with his many neighbors and passersby from his favorite perch inside his garage and watching his young grandchildren grow up and spend afternoons in the backyard pool on sun-baked Sacramento summer days. But the retirement activity Vernon enjoyed most was sitting in his chair across the table from Shyrlee every morning and bringing laughs and smiles to each other’s faces. And for 69 years each of those mornings would begin the same way — when Shyrlee walked into the room Vernon looked up at her, his face brightening, and would say “Good Morning, my love.”

Vernon passed just 2 months short of his 96th birthday. He is preceded in death by brothers William (Bill), Jack, Jimmy and Byron, sisters Marian, Mary Frances (Mitzi) and Patsy and daughter Norwynne (d. 2002). He is survived by his wife Shyrlee, sons Paul (Amanda) of Davis,

Lauris of Los Angeles and grandchildren Alex of Washington D.C., Ella of Oakland, California and Aaron of Truckee & Davis, California and a not so small community of cousins, nieces and nephews throughout the states.

Acknowledgments

Vernon and Shyrlee cultivated lasting roots in Sacramento. Our family would like to extend deep thanks and gratitude to each member of this very special community who continue to come together throughout the generations to share the common belief that love and community always circle back to the origins from which it came. We’d also like to extend our deep thanks and gratitude to the special group of caregivers at home and at Carlton who cared for, looked after, charmed and were charmed by our one of a kind dad like he was their own.

In lieu of flowers and in keeping with Vernon’s commitment to public service please donate to a trusted public charity or organization of your choice.