Editor’s note: The following article is part of a series on prominent black citizens in Warren, in honor of Black History Month in February.
A Warren native has spent most of his life giving back to the community in public service.
Joel Tolefree attended the all-black Westside Elementary School until the fourth grade. He continued attending that school in the fifth and sixth grades, but the school went from Bradley County School District to Warren School District once integration began.
Top photo: Joel Tolefree is sworn in to another term on the Warren City Council January 1, 2023.
In seventh and eighth grades, he went to Warren Junior High School, which was located where the Post Office is now. In ninth grade, he attended the former Bradley County High School. In 10th and 11th grades, he attended the former Warren High School where the Administration Building is now. In 1976, Tolefree graduated from the current Warren High School as part of the first senior class to graduate from that school.
During high school, he participated in track, baseball and football. He was the JROTC battalion commander in his 11th and 12th grade years.
Tolefree majored in business at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff for two years. His first child was born so he quit school and went to work at Potlatch Corp. in the woodlands garage. He worked his way up to a drying supervisor, having worked for Potlatch a total of 24 years.
His job was downsized and he went back to UAPB, majoring in education. He quit to take care of his mother, Florence Tolefree, who passed away in 2020.
Tolefree next went to work as the Bradley County Chamber of Commerce executive director for eight years. While there, he was president of the Southeast Arkansas Tourism Association. He was also a board member of the Southeast Arkansas Cornerstone Coalition, Arkansas Festival Association, Bradley County Fair manager, Arkansas Municipal League Economic Advisory Council, Bradley County Extension Service Community Development Committee and Farm Family Committee, Bradley County Citizen of the Year and Bradley County Pink Tomato Festival chairman. He also served as Southeast Arkansas Community Action Corp.’s Southeast Arkansas food bank director, working with Feeding America.
He has been married to Paulette Tolefree for 43 years. She is a registered nurse and is currently director of the Bradley County Rural Health Clinic. She has worked 34 years at Bradley County Medical Center and was formerly the director of nursing there.
They have three children: Latrese Haygood, Pine Bluff, a nurse at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences organ transplant wing; Mahogany Lewis, Warren School District nurse; and Joel Skylar Tolefree, Dallas, USDA patrol consumer safety inspector for the Fort Worth area.
Tolefree has served on Warren City Council from 2002 to present, currently serving a two-year term.
He also has served on Warren School Board from 2006 to present, currently serving a four-year term.
He said the main issues facing the schools are recruitment and retention of teachers and administrators, plus parental involvement.
He said the main issues facing the city are quality of life, safety, an educated workforce and community development. He served as chairman of the council’s Community and Economic Development Committee for 20 years.
“It means the world to me to be in this community. I don’t think I would have achieved what I have done professionally and personally in any other community. Personally, to be able to marry, raise a family and take care of my parents. Professionally, to be able to contribute to building a strong community like the cabins at Moro Bay State Park, the train depot, Warren Shooting Sports Complex, park system. Being able to build infrastructure in the school system, including the new elementary school and being able to feed the needy and become a Baptist minister.”
Tolefree received his minister’s license a year ago and he brings mission work every second Sunday of the month at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Warren.
