Greg Freeman, Post-Dispatch columnist, dies

ST. LOUIS -- Greg Freeman, a St. Louis native who rose to become one of the chief columnists for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, died Tuesday at his home.

Freeman, 46, collapsed Tuesday morning, his wife, Elizabeth, told the newspaper. He was unresponsive and his family attempted to revive him. Paramedics rushed him to Barnes-Jewish Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 7:57 a.m.

A public memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday at the Graham Chapel at Washington University, his alma mater. A reception will follow at the Holmes Lounge on the campus.

Freeman joined the Post-Dispatch in 1980 and began writing columns in 1989. He became a full-time columnist in 1992.

He worked at the Oakland Press in Pontiac, Mich., and the Belleville (Ill.) News-Democrat before he joined the Post-Dispatch.

In a column published in November, Freeman wrote about the gift his sister had given him a year earlier -- a donated kidney.

Freeman recalled that in 2000, he received a "double whammy."

"First, I was told that the problem that I had been having with my legs was a form of muscular dystrophy," he wrote. "Then, I learned that my kidneys were rapidly failing and that I should prepare for dialysis."

Like 79,000 Americans with failing organs, Freeman was put on a waiting list for a transplant. He became an outspoken advocate for organ donations and transplants.

Freeman's sister, Cheryl McKinney, stepped forward and donated a kidney on Nov. 29, 2001, just as he was about to go on dialysis.

"Cheryl and I were already close, but the kidney transplant has brought us closer together," Freeman wrote in the November column. "I sometimes tap my hand on the right side of my belly -- that's where the kidney is transplanted -- and assure her that I'm taking good care of it.

"After all, it's not every day that you're thrown a lifesaver. And when you do catch one, you hang on for dear life."

In addition to his newspaper column, Freeman hosted a program, "St. Louis on the Air," on KWMU Radio. He hosted a show on KETC, St. Louis' public TV station, from 1997 to 2001.

In addition to his wife and sister, Freeman is survived by a son, Will, and his mother, Doris B. Freeman.