Annette Cook Koonce, age 80, of Fayetteville passed away Sunday, October 18, 2026. She was born June 25, 1946, in Rondebosch Wynberg, South Africa.
Her parents, Annan Cook and Nancy Hannah Athol Brown, both preceded her in death. Her husband, David Searles Freestone, and her youngest daughter, Cynthia Elisabeth Freestone, also preceded her in death.
Annette was the only child of Annan and Nancy Cook. She and her family moved to the United States when she was 3 years old. They moved to have better access to advanced medical care due to her having Cerebral Palsy. Her father, Annan Cook, was a mining geologist for many years, and her mother was a stay-at-home wife and mother.
Annette attended the University of Arizona in Tucson and received her first degree in Romance Languages. She completed the program in three years to marry her husband, David Searles Freestone, then in the U.S. Navy.
Annette and David married in 1967 after he transferred to the U.S. Air Force. They were first stationed in Charleston, S.C., where they welcomed their first daughter, Deborah Annette. They moved to Bitburg, Germany, in 1969 and were there until 1974. During that time, they welcomed their second daughter, Cynthia Elisabeth.
David’s time in the U.S. Air Force brought many moves, and during those, Annette continued her studies, earning two postgraduate degrees in Early Childhood Education and Special Education. After the untimely deaths of David and Cynthia in 1985, Annette earned her third postgraduate degree in Clinical Psychiatry.
After that tremendous loss, she developed a drive to help others and make things better by working as a school counselor, a psychotherapist, and a hospital chaplain.
She was a long-time member of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Fayetteville.
She is survived by her daughter and son-in-law, Deborah and Early Green, and her grandsons and their partners, Earl-David Green and Michael Schroen and Michael Green and Lee Meers.
Nelson Berna Funeral Home is handling cremation arrangements.