Edith Jeffers Freeman was an Extension Rural Sociologist at Oregon State from 1946 to 1954. She was born in 1900, in Frederick, South Dakota. She received her Bachelor of Science in Home Economics from the University of Washington in 1932. She received her Master of Science in Family Relations from Cornell University in 1939 and her Ph.D. in Rural Sociology from Cornell in 1943. Her thesis for her master’s degree was titled “Family Education through Home Visits”. Her thesis for her Ph.D. was titled “Social Class as a Factor in the Family Group Relations of Certain Farm Families”. Before coming to OSC, she worked as an Assistant Professor in Sociology for Pratt Institute. She was hired as a home demonstration agent at large for OSC in 1946, at an annual salary of $3,408. But due to high enrollment levels in the Department of Sociology during the Fall of 1946, she was transferred to the department to serve as an instructor from October to December. She returned to being a home demonstration agent after the Fall term of 1946. In 1948, Dr. Freeman was transferred to work under a new project under the Federal Cooperative Extension Department called “Rural Sociology”. She received the new title of Sociology Specialist, and an annual salary of $3,948. Under this project, Dr. Freeman studied the relations between marriage, family, and class in rural Oregon. She resigned in 1954, after her position was discontinued.
