Pastor Freeman, Jr.

Gilbert Freeman, Jr., 66 of DeRidder, LA was born on September 29, 1956. God-blessed the late Gilbert Freeman, Sr. and Cora Mae Denmond Freeman with a handsome baby boy. Affectionately known as Jr., J.R. or Jay, he was educated in the Beauregard Parish school system.

In 1979 he relocated his family to Texas in the Galveston area. Gilbert was a hard working man who held down various jobs including Sterling Chemical in Texas City, Texas and UTLX in Galena Park, Texas until his health began to falter.

In 1993 he met his soulmate, Brenda Faye Sanford and on November 4, 1994 they united in Holy Matrimony. Swiftly thereafter he was filled with the baptism of the Holy Ghost with evidence in speaking in tongues, and announced his calling to the ministry. He preached his first sermon in 2000 and became an Ordained Elder in the Church of God in Christ under Bishop Rufus Kyles, Jr. on August 30, 2014. Elder Gilbert Freeman, Jr. later became the Pastor of the True Mission Church of God in Christ. On Saturday morning, at 2:50am an Angel summoned by our God on April 1, 2023 called Pastor Gilbert Freeman, Jr. from his labor to reward. He was a great man of God whose life has touched and changed the hearts and souls of men, women, boys and girls.

He is preceded in death by his father, Gilbert Freeman, Sr.; stepfather Florian Davis Phillips; paternal and maternal grandparents; sister, Vanetta Haynes; special uncle, Minister Theo Denmond; daughter-in-law, Carmen Freeman and several aunts, uncles and cousins.

Pastor Gilbert Freeman, Jr. leaves to cherish his memory his loving wife of almost 30 years Brenda Sanford Freeman; mother, Cora Mae Freeman Phillips; children, Erica, Gilbert III, Brittany, Tiffani, Rickey, Eric, Steffani and Reginald; sisters, Felicia and her husband JC Carter, Mary and her husband Robert Prater; brothers, Robert and Donnie Freeman; aunt, Josie Freeman and uncle, Leverne and his wife Loretha Denmond; mother and father-in-law, Elder Rosevelt and Zola Sanford; sisters and brother-in-laws; Datron and husband Richard Moore, Tanya and her husband David Buckley, Jr., Jeannetta Lenzy and La'Shan and her husband Anthony Jones; step siblings, Dania and Selena; twenty six grand and great-grandchildren and a plethora of nieces, nephews, cousins, friends and the True Mission Church of God in Christ Church Family.

Friends are cordially invited to a visitation from ten o’clock in the morning until eleven forty-five o’clock in the morning on Friday, the 7th of April, 2023 in the sanctuary of Sanford’s Temple Church of God in Christ, 5508 Phillips Street in Texas City.

A Glorious Celebration of Gilbert’s Life will be conducted at noon Friday the 7th of April 2023, at Sanford’s Temple Church of God in Christ, with Bishop Johnny A. Tates, Eulogist.