Ethel Hale Freeman graduated from Smith College in 1902. After graduation, she studied at the Art School of the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, and received her M.A. from Smith in 1915. After some years spent serving as dramatic coach for the Wellesley Shakespeare Society and the Players of Newton, she came to Smith to teach elocution and modern drama from 1911 to 1917. She also taught spoken English and Shakespeare in a University extension course in Greenfield, Massachusetts. Between 1917 and 1925, Freeman taught English at the Lee School in Boston, and from 1924 to 1933, was an instructor at Dana Hall and Pine Manor in Wellesley. She was active in many forms of the arts, including music, sculpture, and the theater. Although she grew up in West Newton, she spent many happy summers on her old farm in Ashfield. Freeman died in Essex, Connecticut on February 26, 1963.