Curtis Freeman and His Son Brent Freeman Reflect on 100 Years of Service in the Ark-La-Tex
By Sarah Vammen

Center photo: Curtis with his late wife, Marie. Clockwise from top left: Curtis’s mother, Ima Fay Freeman, with two of her grandchildren, Linda Johnson White and Dale Johnson, standing beside one of their first delivery trucks. Claude Freeman in his World War I uniform. Claude Freeman, Hugh Skelton, and Curtis Freeman loading garden mums for a delivery. Curtis Freeman in the greenhouses checking a poinsettia crop in 1985.

Claude Marshall Freeman served in the United States Army on the frontlines of World War I in France and Germany. After all he endured and experienced during the war, Claude was grateful to return home to his hometown of Simms, Texas, with a plan. After seeing beautiful gardens in Europe, Claude felt inspired to start grafting fruit trees and growing different varieties of plants back home in Texas. So, in 1925, Freeman Nursery launched, and 100 years later, the family business is still blooming.

As the company grew, so did Claude’s family. His only son, Curtis Claude Freeman, joined Freeman Landscape in the 1950s and began expanding the business. “He added 40 greenhouses and 20 acres of shrub- and tree-growing area,” Curtis’ son Brent explained.

Curtis continued the expansion, opening a retail location on New Boston Road in Texarkana run by his wife, Marie, and son Scot. As the business blossomed, other members of the Freeman family started to get involved. Curtis’ oldest son, Mark, began working with his dad at the wholesale location in Simms in 1985, and he is now the operations manager. Curtis and Marie’s daughter Lisa Freeman Toler has worked at both the retail and wholesale locations throughout the years. Brent worked at the retail location throughout school before graduating with a degree in landscape architecture from Texas A&M University in 1984. He returned home to launch the landscaping part of the business. Even Brent’s wife, Lissa, worked at the company for 20 years before leaving to become the facility director of Haven Home for Women in 2020.

Today, Curtis remains the owner and operator of Freeman Nursery, while Brent owns Freeman Landscape.

Brent and Lissa have four children—Jason, Megan, Marshall, and Carder—and three of them are now in the family business. Jason is the company’s irrigation, drainage, and water feature specialist. Marshall is the company’s 3D landscape designer. Megan is the CEO.

“[Megan is] the glue that holds us all together,” Brent said. “Carder is in eighth grade at Pleasant Grove and says he doesn’t want anything to do with the business. That’s what they all said,” Brent joked.

The older children’s spouses also play a role in the business. Megan’s husband, Tim, is the company’s outdoor living specialist, and Marshall’s wife, Summer, is the marketing coordinator.

The greenhouses are filling up for all the spring landscaping to come. photo by shane darby

As more and more members of the Freeman family contribute their talents to the longstanding business, Freeman Landscape continues to branch out to better serve the needs of Texarkana-area residents.

“The business has evolved from being a small side business to a wholesale, retail, landscape, and outdoor living enterprise,” Brent said. He explained that their services range from providing seasonal plants to designing and building outdoor structures such as pergolas, pavilions, outdoor kitchens, water features, and drainage solutions. “I think Claude would be surprised and very proud.”

Running a business for an entire century isn’t without challenges, setbacks, and growing pains. In the plant-growing branch of the business, Freeman Nursery has faced insects, diseases, and detrimental weather over the years.

“In 1983, we had below-freezing temperatures for more than 10 days,” Curtis recalled. “It killed nearly all our trees and shrubs that were not in greenhouses. It was a very difficult time for us, but we kept on moving forward and replanting. With hard work and faith, we made a comeback.”

Helmet the tortoise keeps watch over the greenhouses ... between snacks. photo by shane darby

While intertwining business with family can be complicated, the Freemans say that it only helps them flourish. “We’ve had our ups and downs but have always been able to work through them together as a family,” Brent said.

As the Freeman family continues to tend to the business Claude started all those years ago, they’ve enjoyed watching the Texarkana area grow and thrive alongside their family.

Examples of the company’s landscape work. submitted photos

“Our family roots run deep in Bowie County,” Curtis said. “Texarkana has grown in the last 100 years and provided our family with opportunities to provide a living for our family. We appreciate all the people who have worked for us, the customers who have trusted us, and all the people who have helped us when they didn’t have to.” Brent emphasized that the entire family values the relationships they’ve fostered in their ten decades of business and that they look forward to growing new ones over the next 100 years.

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A Business Rooted in Family