Debbie Freeman has been teaching school for 50 years. During those years, she has been more than just an educator. She has been a teacher who genuinely loves each one of the students who walk through her classroom door. So-much-so, some have likened her to a mother.

“She was so caring and took the time to build a relationship with each student individually. I felt like she was a second mother at school,” Marcus Allen said.

Allen, a Vicksburg resident, was a first-grade student of Freeman’s when he attended Bowmar Avenue Elementary School (1997-98).

Freeman’s mother Mary Liddell Smith said her daughter knew at a young age she wanted to be a teacher.

“When I started teaching back in the late 40’s, I did it because I had gotten the degree and needed the money,” Smith said laughingly. “But Debbie started teaching because she loved to teach. Debbie knew she would be a teacher always. When she was a little girl, she would always play school. So, Bill (Debbie’s father) and I were not surprised when she decided to major in education at Ole Miss.”

Freeman graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1970 and took her first teaching job in Natchez. While there, she met her husband Winky and both the couple’s daughters, Annabeth (Wyatt) and Lana Claire (Morgan), were born there before the family moved to Vicksburg.

Freeman’s love of teaching wasn’t seen only by her mother. Linda Herrod, a principal at South Park when Freeman was a teacher at the elementary school, said she, too, recognized how much Freeman loved her job and her students.

“She was an excellent teacher and loved her job,” Herrod said. “And her love for teaching and love for those students really really shone through.”

Wyatt, Freeman’s oldest daughter, said she felt like her mother had always gone the “extra mile for her students.”

“She has a deep love for each student that the Lord puts in her path. She feels called to be each child’s cheerleader, and to show them all of the love and support she can while those students are in her care, and even after they leave her class,” Wyatt said. “Once you’re a student of Debbie Freeman’s, you remain a part of her heart forever. I can’t tell you how many emails, letters, texts, and phone calls she gets from former students telling her that she was (their) favorite teacher and telling her that she made such a difference in their lives.

Wyatt went on to say her mother continues to stay in touch with many of her students.

“They are all a part of who she is, and who she was called to be. She pours into her students, and she shows up for them day after day, year after year. In her 50 years of teaching, she has taught thousands of students, and trust me, if you go out in public with her in Vicksburg, there is always a student who runs up to her to hug her neck and visit with her. She is like a rockstar in her own right. No matter the age, when they see Mrs. Freeman, they are all smiles and can’t wait to talk to her. She goes the extra mile because that’s who she is. She was born to teach.”

Morgan, Freeman’s youngest daughter, said she remembered when her mother would invite students for a sleepover.

“Mama would have her students that met their AR (Accelerated Reader) goal come and spend the night at our house. I can remember having a living room full of children in sleeping bags all over the floor,” Morgan said. “And her classes would also adopt a family around the holidays. They would purchase gifts for them. I remember a year that they gave a bike to a precious little boy.”

As a teacher herself, Morgan described her mother as the “very best teacher” and shared how innovative she has been.

“Over 30 years ago, she developed a classroom management plan, STRAWS. We have presented this behavior management method around the state,” Morgan said, adding now teachers, as well as parents, in Mississippi have adopted the program.

In addition to using STRAWS as a behavioral management method to better serve each student, Morgan said her mother makes sure each child reaches his or her potential and she forms relationships with the parents.

“She does what is best for each child on an individual basis. She does not stop when a child reaches a goal. She continues to push. She also gets involved in children’s lives outside of school. She forms relationships with parents that last far beyond the school year,” Morgan said. “To this day, she cuts people’s pictures out of the newspaper, hand-writes notes and sends them weekly.”

On Thursday, Freeman’s four-year-old preschool class at First Baptist Church honored her with a party to celebrate her 50 years of teaching.

During the party, the children presented Freeman with a special picture made from their handprints and words of appreciation that included, “When God created teachers, He made someone just like you — with gentle hands and a giving heart, and wisdom deep and true.”

Jared Thames, whose son is in the class said, “For five decades Mrs. Freeman has given knowledge in a fun and charismatic way that has left an immeasurable impact on hundreds of children. I am one of the fortunate ones to have been taught by her and now my son can say the same.” 

Thames went on to say, he appreciated Freeman’s unwavering dedication and loving spirit, adding, “Thank you, Mrs Debbie.”

Wyatt said her mother, over the years, has won education awards, earned certifications and represented Mississippi educators by serving on various boards.

“You name it, and she has done it,” Wyatt said. “But it’s not the accolades in a career spanning 50 years that matter to her. It’s her students who matter to her. It’s her students who fill her heart with happiness. Being able to make a difference in the lives of her students is the real reward to her. My mother’s calling truly is to teach. She tells me all the time that there is nowhere she would rather be than in her cozy classroom surrounded by her students.”

“Mama is the most caring, thoughtful, intentional person that I know,” Morgan said. “She pours herself into her family, church, and children. She does not know the definition of meeting the standard; she always goes above and beyond.”

“I am beyond proud of Debbie’s 50 years of teaching,” Smith said. “She has not just taught; she has molded lives. I am also so proud to be her mother and proud of the mother she is to her daughters.”