Jerry D. Freeble, Sr.

Age 94, died peacefully in his home on April 11, 2023 after a long and adventurous life.

Born in 1928 in Leetsdale, Pennsylvania, Jerry obtained a scholarship and graduated from the Hill School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania before volunteering for service in the Army.

A veteran of World War II, he received training at Fort Benning, Georgia, Fort Riley, Kansas, and Fort Campbell, Kentucky, where he completed the arduous training required to be a member of the elite 11th Airborne Division. Jerry became a master paratrooper and pathfinder and was ranked as an expert marksman. At one time, Jerry was the youngest commissioned officer in the United States Army, after achieving the rank of 2nd Lieutenant.

Before shipping out for two years of service in the Far East and occupied Japan, Jerry met and married the love of his life, Honey Greene, while he was stationed at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds in Maryland. She would remain by his side until the day he died, seventy-four years later. In 1953, Jerry retired from the Army having earned the rank of Captain and returned with his bride to Leetsdale. He later enrolled and graduated from Geneva College, completing his degree in less than three years.

After returning from overseas, Jerry saw an opportunity in the new, post-war economy: real estate. After working for a few years as a salesman with a local firm, in 1955 he earned his broker’s license and started his own company, Freeble Real Estate located on Merchant Street in Ambridge. Those were boom years in Beaver County and surrounding communities, fueled by an influx of workers from around the world who were attracted to good paying jobs in the steel industry. Once, in less than a week, he and his company sold over one hundred homes based on a single “model home” that he and a building contractor had constructed near Ambridge. Times were good.

When the steel industry went into decline in the 1970s, the economics of real estate changed. The previous model of volume sales that realtors relied upon evaporated and was replaced by select, higher-end opportunities in communities like Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, Edgeworth, and Glen Osborne. Freeble Real Estate adapted, and the company shifted its focus towards this new but uniquely challenging market. Throughout the following three decades, Freeble Real Estate listed and sold some of Sewickley, Sewickley Heights, and Edgeworth’s most beautiful and prestigious homes, tailoring marketing, sales, and creative financing to a new kind of buyer and investor.

He was a direct descendent of Thomas McKean, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and a member of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR). Later in life, Jerry’s passion lay in helping fellow disabled American veterans. He was a proud member of the Disabled American Veterans (DAV) and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW). 

Jerry is survived by his beloved wife, Honey; his daughter, Leslie Freeble Morgan; his son, Christopher; and two grandchildren, Robert B. Morgan III and Alison Elizabeth Morgan. He is preceded in death by his first-born son, Jerry D. Freeble Jr. Friends will be received on Wednesday, May 3rd, 2023 between 6-8 p.m. at THE RICHARD D. COLE FUNERAL HOME, INC., 328 Beaver Street, Sewickley, PA 15143. A private service will be conducted by Reverend Brian W. Noel of the Divine Redeemer Catholic Church, (Formerly Saint James.) Burial services will be private. In lieu of flowers, it was Jerry's wish that donations be made in his name to the Leetsdale Volunteer Fire Department, 136 Broad Street, Leetsdale, PA, 15056.

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