Freeman died Sunday at a Mississippi hospital, according to Lowndes Funeral Home. He will be buried at a cemetery in Caledonia, Mississippi, on Friday, The Associated Press reported.
Freeman, who was born in Artesia, Mississippi, was 18 when he enlisted for World War II. He volunteered to become a paratrooper and was a mortarman in Company E, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division.
'Band of Brothers' FILE PHOTO: Band of Brothers veterans of Easy Company 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment (from left to right) Buck Compton, Ed Tipper, Bradford Freeman, Donald Malarkey, as they attend the formal unveiling of a memorial plaque at Stansted Airport, Essex, commemorating those who served from the airport during WWII. Freeman, second from right, was the last surviving member of the unit. He died Sunday at the age of 97. (Chris Radburn - PA Images/PA Images via Getty Images)
Freeman parachuted into Normandy on D-Day. He was wounded in the Battle of the Bulge and eventually took part in the occupations of Berchtesgaden, Germany and Austria, the AP reported.
He was awarded a Purple Heart for being wounded in the battle after being hit by German rocket fire, nicknamed “Screaming Mimi.” When asked what a “Screaming Mimi” was, Freeman said, “I don’t know, but it came in hollering and then it exploded,” NBC News reported.
Freeman was honored for his service last year at Columbus Air Force Base, where he said “Me and my buddies did a job for America. ... Now it’s time for new faces to take up the cause,” NBC News reported.
Freeman married his wife, Willie Louise Gurley, in 1947 and worked as a mail carrier for more than three decades after the war.
He was remembered as a “kind, generous and humorous gentleman,” by family friend David Simmons, NBC News reported.
Freeman leaves behind a sister, two daughters, four grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren, the AP reported.
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D-Day D-Day: The battle of Normandy, June 6, 1944
U.S. Army graphic by Daniel Torok (Daniel Torok/U.S. Army)
D-Day Lt. Col. Roy A. Webb Jr., second from right, commander of the 374th Fighter Squadron, receives a flight briefing prior to flying a mission on June 6, 1944 – the day of the D-Day invasion. Pictured at Bottisham air field in England are 374th pilots Lt. Wallace B. Frank, Lt. Col. Wallace E. Hopkins, Major George R. Rew, Capt. George Lichter, Lt. Col. Roy Webb, Lt. Edward Murdy. Briefing Room, Bottisham. (Photo from the collection of the American Air Museum in England) (Tech. Sgt. Daniel Heaton/127th Wing)
D-Day British Royal Navy Adm. Sir Bertram Ramsay, left, talks with U.S. Navy Rear Adm. John L. Hall Jr. aboard the command ship USS Ancon (AGC 4) May 25, 1944, at an unknown location. On May 28, 1944, Ramsay issued the order to carry out Operation Neptune, the amphibious portion of the invasion of Normandy. The morning of June 6, 1944, Allied forces conducted a massive airborne assault and amphibious landing in the Normandy region of France. The invasion marked the beginning of the final phase of World War II in Europe, which ended with the surrender of Germany the following May. (U.S. National Archives and Records Administration photo/Released) (U.S. Department of Defense)
D-Day U.S. Soldiers disembark a landing craft under heavy fire off the coast of Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. (Photo Credit: National Archives U.S. Coast Guard Collection) (Defense Media Activity - Army)
D-Day The beachhead is secure, but the price was high. A U.S. Coast Guard photographer came upon this monument to a dead American soldier somewhere on the shell-blasted shore of Normandy shortly after D-Day. Coast Guard photo (Katie Lange/DMA Social Media)
D-Day U.S. Soldiers disembark a landing craft at Normandy, France, June 6, 1944. By the end of the day, some 150,000 Allied troops had landed on five Normandy beaches and three airborne drop zones. The invasion marked the beginning of the final phase of World War II in Europe, which ended with the surrender of Germany the following May. (DOD photo courtesy of the National Infantry Museum/Released) (U.S. Department of Defense)
D-Day FILE - In this June 8, 1944, file photo, under heavy German machine gun fire, American infantrymen wade ashore off the ramp of a Coast Guard landing craft during the invasion of the French coast of Normandy in World War II.(U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File) (AP)
D-Day FILE - In this June 6, 1944, file photo, provided by the U.S. Army Signal Corps, General Dwight Eisenhower gives the order of the day, "Full Victory - Nothing Else" to paratroopers in England just before they board their planes to participate in the first assault in the invasion of the continent of Europe. June 6, 2019, marks the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the assault that began the liberation of France and Europe from German occupation, leading to the end World War II. (U.S. Army Signal Corps Photo via AP) (Anonymous/AP)
D-Day FILE - In this June 1944, file photo, U.S. reinforcements wade through the surf as they land at Normandy in the days following the Allies', D-Day invasion of occupied France.(U.S. Coast Guard via AP, File) (PETER J. CARROLL/AP)
D-Day FILE - In this June 5, 1944, file photo, U.S. serviceman attend a Protestant service aboard a landing craft before the D-Day invasion on the coast of France. (AP Photo/Pete J. Carroll, File) (Peter J. Carroll/AP)
D-Day U.S. Soldiers, including Jake McNiece, right, assigned to the 101st Airborne Division apply war paint to each other's face in England June 5, 1944, in preparation for the invasion of Normandy, France, the next day. The morning of June 6, 1944, Allied forces conducted a massive airborne assault and amphibious landing in the Normandy region of France. The invasion marked the beginning of the final phase of World War II in Europe, which ended with the surrender of Germany the following May. McNiece led a demolition group called the Filthy 13, whose exploits were credited with the inspiration of the film "The Dirty Dozen." (U.S. Army photo/Released) (U.S. Department of Defense)
D-Day A bird's-eye view of landing craft, barrage balloons and Allied troops landing in Normandy, France, on D-Day, June 6, 1944. U.S. Maritime Commission photo (Katie Lange/DMA Social Media)
D-Day FILE - In this Aug. 25, 1944 file photo, French civilians with hastily made American and French flags greet U.S. and Free French troops entering Paris, France, after Allied liberation of the French capital from Nazi occupation in World War II. For Allied troops in western Europe, D-Day was just the beginning of a long and bloody push toward victory over the Nazis. (AP Photo/Harry Harris, file) (Harry Harris/AP)
D-Day Resolute faces of U.S. Army paratroopers just before they took off for the initial assault of D-Day. The paratrooper in the foreground had just read Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's message of good luck and clasped his bazooka in determination. Note Eisenhower's D-Day order in the hands of the paratrooper in the foreground. DOD photo (Katie Lange/DMA Social Media)
D-Day FILE - In this February 1944, file photo, Don Whitehead, Associated Press correspondent, writes his story of the landing at Anzio Beach in Italy, from a fox hole. Whitehead, known by his colleagues as “Beachhead Don,” returned to Normandy for the tenth anniversary of the D-Day invasion, June 5, 1954, which he covered when he followed the 1st Infantry Division onto Omaha Beach. (AP Photo/Bill Allen, File) (Bill Allen/AP)
D-Day This undated photo shows Associated Press reporter Roger Greene a few days after the June 6, 1944, D-Day landing in France. Greene was the first seaborned war correspondent to land on the beach of Normandy in the D-Day invasion. He accompanied British forces across the Channel. (AP Photo) (uncredited/AP)
D-Day This wire copy by Associated Press reporter Roger Greene reached New York on June 8, 1944, two days after Greene made the D-Day landing alongside British forces. Greenes escorting officer was wounded and he saw three men killed as he landed. In New York Executive Editor Alan J. Gould marked the copy in red, First from our beachhead team. (AP Photo/AP Corporate Archives) (uncredited/AP)
D-Day This undated image shows the Howell Dodd graphic that appeared in the June-July 1944 issue of The AP Inter-Office, a printed and illustrated magazine that was offered to AP staff and member newspapers. The graphic shows depictions of the AP correspondents on D-Day. In 1945 the magazine changed its name to AP World. (AP Photo/AP Corporate Archives, Howell Dodd) (Howell Dodd/AP)
