He was born on Dec. 26, 1934, in Courtland to William T. Free Sr. and Florence Lottie Levrold. He was raised in Courtland and graduated from Courtland High School in 1952.
He served in Korea for the U.S. Army.
He married Joan Sankey of Republic on March 28, 1959, at Amana Lutheran Church in Scandia. She survives at their home in Cleveland, Okla.
He and his wife traveled from Nebraska to Oklahoma for 52 years building roads, reclaiming coal-mined pits and creating landfills. He was an owner of a contractor company, Heide, Patzel & Free, retiring in 2005.
Other survivors include two daughters, Victoria Free of Cleveland, Okla., and Sherry Bowin of McCune; three grandsons; two great-grandsons; a brother, Ben Free of Formoso; and a sister, Carol Larson of Apache Junction, Ariz.
The memorial service will be at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Chapel of the Chapman-Black Funeral Home in Cleveland, Okla. Following cremation, burial will be on a family farm in Kansas at a later date.
Memorials are suggested to Infinity Care of Tulsa, 6914 S. Yorktown, Suite 115, Tulsa, 74136 or the Republic County Historical Society, 615 28th Street, Belleville, 66935.
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