- published: 31 Mar 2014
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Orville Lothrop Freeman (May 9, 1918 – February 20, 2003) was an American Democratic politician who served as the 29th Governor of Minnesota from January 5, 1955 to January 2, 1961, and as the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture from 1961 to 1969 under Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson. He was one of the founding members of the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and strongly influential in the merger of the pre-DFL Minnesota Democratic and Farmer-Labor Parties. Freeman nominated Kennedy for President at the national Democratic Party convention.
Born in 1918 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, of Swedish and Norwegian ancestry, Freeman is best remembered for initiating the Food Stamp Program for under-resourced people which is still in use today. Freeman was a 1940 graduate of the University of Minnesota, where he met his life-long friend and political ally, Hubert Humphrey, and his future wife and lifelong partner Jane Shields. During World War II, he served as a combat officer in United States Marine Corps, achieving the rank of Major.