August 4, 2022, 70, Mount Olive –

Frederick Bruce Southerland, otherwise known as Freddy Bear, at the age of 70, passed away at home Thursday evening, August 4, 2022.

Funeral services will be held Saturday, August 6, at 6 p.m. at Tyndall Funeral Home, and will be officiated by the Rev. Jeff Bartlett and the Rev. Ashley Summerlin, with visitation to follow. Burial will be Sunday, August 7, at 2 p.m. in Maplewood Cemetery in Mount Olive. Friends and relatives are also being received at Freddy Bear’s residence (which is next to Brock’s Chapel Church).

Freddy Bear is survived by a son, Freddy Norman Southerland and his wife, Candice, of Mount Olive; a daughter, Lisa Southerland Hood of Mount Olive; five grandchildren, Daxton Southerland, Mason Dixon, Megan Hood, Ivy Hood, and G.I. Hood; a great-grandson, Manfred Hood V; two sisters, Winifred Southerland Bell of Mount Olive, and Elizabeth “Punk” Southerland Knowles and husband, Albert Ray Knowles of Mount Olive; three brothers, Wayland Southerland and wife, Joan, of Mount Olive, Shelton Southerland and wife, Jo, of the Pricetown community, Seven Springs, and Gregory Southerland of Kenansville; his former wife and the mother of their children, Cathy Holmes S. Graham of Mount Olive; and several nieces and nephews.

Freddy Bear was preceded in death by an infant son, Frederick Bruce Southerland, Jr.; his parents, Eddie Norman Southerland and Pennie Summerlin Southerland; brothers, Lawrence Jason Southerland, Eddie Nelson Southerland, and Dexter Wayne Southerland; and sisters, Norma Jean Southerland Blalock and Sandra Southerland Taylor.

Freddy Bear was quite accomplished in welding and millwright skills, and was, to area farmers, someone nice to have close by for needed repairs. In earlier years, he was a volunteer fireman with Oak Wolfe Fire Department.

He will be greatly missed.