After more than a decade of service on the Board of Trustees beginning in 1973 and concluding with her two years of service as Board President, the first woman to hold this position, Elaine Freeman was elected as a Sustaining Trustee in 2003.

Mrs. Freeman founded the ETV Endowment and, for over 40 years, the member organization has funded and supported programming on SCETV and South Carolina Public Radio. Under her leadership, and at the time of her retirement, ETV Endowment had received more than $72 million in membership contributions and $121 million in grants and gifts.

A graduate of Wellesley College, she taught English at the departed Jenkins Jr. High and at Spartanburg High and French at Evans, Jr. High.  

A major force in the Spartanburg community, Mrs. Freeman headed the fundraising campaign for the Charles Lea Center board and her vision helped establish the Ellen Hines Smith Girls’ Home. She has also served previously as a trustee for Presbyterian College and Brookgreen Gardens, on the President’s Committee for Employment of the Handicapped, as a consultant with South Carolina Educational Communications, and as an executive producer for ETV, producing the longest-running and most widely carried jazz program.

Wife of the late Robert Freeman, they raised three children, Heather, Rob, and Ian.