June Biber was a Yankee girl — Newark, N.J.-born and reared — who went to college at the University of Chicago for a serious education. As fate would have it, she met Edmond Freeman, whose forefathers owned and ran the Pine Bluff Commercial. Both were in graduate school.
But duty called and Edmond had to return to Pine Bluff to help run the newspaper with his brother Armistead. Suddenly, the newly minted Mrs. Freeman, who had gone a great distance west to go to college was now going a great distance south to live.
One has to go back to those days to understand the influence that newspaper publishers used to have. Unlike today, very unlike today, getting news disseminated fell mostly to the printed newspaper, although television and radio would make some inroads in time. In many ways, newspapers shaped society.
All that to say, June could have sat back in the luxury of her new star power as the wife of a formidable husband, but like an earlier Hillary Clinton, she had no interest in living her life as a brooch on her husband’s lapel.
Add that to the fact that she was smart and not from around here and instantly she was viewed with some trepidation. Looking back, that was fine with her, as she said in an interview a few years ago as she was being inducted into the Arkansas Women’s Hall of Fame. Maybe it was best not to be like everybody else, she said.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
And maybe she was right. She immediately stood out, in a good way. Her efforts to move the art needle in Pine Bluff and the surrounding area were successful. As has been said, because of her, there is an Arts and Science Center for Southeast Arkansas.
Her star continued to rise while the two lived here and even after the Freemans sold the newspaper and the couple moved to Little Rock. A clinical psychologist by education and practice, the stamp she would put on her life was the appreciation of art and architecture in the world. Her influence was felt across the state.
Her social conscience was often on display as well. She recognized that UAPB’s art department should be more highly appreciated and included in the community and she worked to make that happen. Likely, that wasn’t a very popular position to take in the day.
And she joined a women’s organization whose goal was to integrate Central High School and to reopen it after it closed during the civil rights turmoil. It should be noted that her involvement predated by a decade the Pulitzer her husband’s newspaper received for its civil rights stand through the typewriter of Paul Greenberg.
June died on Thursday, the Fourth of July, just days short of her 96th birthday. She and Edmond had each other for 70 years, with him dying in 2021.
We would say the world needs more June Freemans, but perhaps only a few can be accommodated at one time. As her family said, she was driven to make the world a better place and didn’t take no for an answer. Pine Bluff is fortunate to have had her in our midst as some of the fabric of life that we take for granted now was created by her. We extend our condolences to her family and friends. She will be missed.