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Freda Alice Dunnam, M.D.
Freda Missavage
August 24, 1925 –
October 17, 1999
Complications of bronchoalveolar carcinoma

Parts of this obituary appeared in the
Detroit Free Press  10/20/99

Whether she was sewing colorful kids' clothes, completing the weekend crossword puzzle, listening to Dixieland jazz, or playing with her collection of wind-up toys, Freda Dunnam Missavage always found enjoyment in her family and her work.
     Although a vehement nonsmoker, she passed away on October 17 due to complications from bronchoalveolar lung cancer, diagnosed November 1998. She was 74.
     The youngest of Maude and Coleman Dunnam's five children, she was born August 24, 1925 in Franklinton, LA. She graduated from Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, and LSU medical school in New Orleans in 1949.
      Dr. Dunnam began her professional career as a psychiatric resident at Wayne County General Hospital in 1950, where she met and married a fellow psychiatrist, Edward Missavage Jr. (He proposed by asking, "What's your blood type?") At the time she was one of three female physicians at the Eloise facility.
     She completed her residency at Pontiac State Hospital, leaving to follow her husband to his Army station in France in 1953. Upon their return to the US she stayed home to raise her family. She often joked, "I spent seventeen years watching 'Captain Kangaroo'."
     Dr. Dunnam resumed her career at PSH (then called Clinton Valley Center) following the death of her youngest child. She loved her work with the acute admission ward and was devoted to her patients, and the supportive staff. She retired from CVC on a medical disability in 1986, and with her husband enjoyed some traveling, concerts, opera, and collecting art glass at antique shows.
     The Dunnams were a family of home sewers; her father rented and sold sewing machines, and her seamstress mother made and sold dresses to residents of Bogalusa and Baton Rouge. Dr. Dunnam continued this tradition; she took great pleasure in creating wardrobes for herself and her family, including three generations of costumes for Halloween, Mardi Gras, and historical reenactments. On visits to her beloved Hawaii, she bought local fabric and made shirts for her husband. Other big projects included family wedding dresses, clothes for friends and other relatives, and draperies and reupholstering projects.
     A subtle feminist who raised three feminist daughters, Dr. Dunnam came up with a unique approach to ballot selection several elections ago. "I went through the list and voted for anyone with a woman's name. They can't do any worse than the bunch of men we've got running things," she explained.

     Dr. Dunnam was preceded in death by her son Paul (1965 - 1969) and her siblings. She is survived by her husband and their children Anne, Karen, Edward C., and Gwendolyn, and granddaughters Karen and Laura Clark.
  Cremation has taken place; a memorial service was held November 6. Memorial contributions may be made to the Karmanos Cancer Institute.

Her kids at the memorial service: Edward C., Ellen, Karen C., Anne, herself, Karen M., Laura (it was naptime), Gwen.

Orchid show




With husband Ed at the Michigan Orchid Fanciers' annual Easter show, March 1999

Gone From My Sight
   I am standing upon the seashore. A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze and starts for the blue ocean. She is an object of beauty and strength. I stand and watch her until at length she hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea and sky come to mingle with each other.
   Then someone at my side says: "There, she is gone!"
   Gone where?
   Gone from my sight. That is all. She is just as large in mast and hull and spar as she was when she left my side and she is just as able to bear her load of living freight to her destined port.
   Her diminished size is in me, not in her. And just at the moment when someone at my side says: "there, she is gone!" there are other eyes watching her coming, and other voices ready to take up the glad shout, "here she comes!"
  And that is dying. –Henry Van Dyke

This page designed by her daughter Karen. Drop by my other sites.

KRDunnam@earthlink.net

Karen Contra Caller

Tandem bike fun!