Marjorie Kulman Obituary

     Marjorie Wolf Kulman (Margie) passed away on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina, on April 9, 2025, at the age of 93. Margie was gracious, loving, determined, and creative. A true Southern lady, she maintained her hallmark grace and impeccable manners through her final days.

     Born in Tampa, Florida, on July 31, 1931, to Gladys Leserman Wolf and Joseph Louis Wolf, Margie met her husband of 58 years and the love of her life, Oscar David Kulman (David), on her first day of college at the University of Alabama. David, an Atlantan one year her senior and two years ahead of her in school, became her ”rock,” to use Margie’s word. He in turn described her as “the least spoiled person” he had ever met and grinned each time he told friends that she was just “a common, ordinary Miss America.” A member of the university’s 1949 and 1950 homecoming courts, she was, as she liked to say about other people, “beautiful inside and out.” 

     Beauty was at the center of Margie’s life. She had a talent for making everything she turned her attention to shine, especially the house in the Buckhead neighborhood of Atlanta that she and David built, made their family home, and took pride in for more than five decades. A lifelong gardener with a keen eye and a green thumb, Margie loved to “dig in the dirt,” as she said. She transformed the lot, which had previously been the local garbage dump, into a lush landscape, planting each shrub and ivy sprig herself. Margie showed the same attentiveness to her yard that she did to her home, often weeding, watering, trimming, and tidying until after nightfall. In the early 1980s, Margie applied her gift for decorating to The Gables Antiques in Atlanta, where she worked for many years, selling French and English provincial furniture. She also became an avid collector.

     She always described herself as a “water girl,” and gravitated to the sand and sea, especially on Hilton Head Island, where she moved in 2017. It made her happy to walk on the beach for miles.  

     Margie’s abiding love was for her family. It was her husband, children, grandchildren, and dogs who brought her the deepest pleasure. Nothing superseded her joy at making herself available to her daughters—as a role model, attentive listener, and partner in crime. She revealed her emotional strength as she cared for David for nearly a decade of illness before he passed away in 2009. 

     Margie is survived by her three daughters, Cindy Brown of Hilton Head Island, South Carolina (Ed), Betsy Kulman of Chestertown, Maryland, and Linda Kulman of Washington, D.C. (Ralph Alswang), and three grandchildren, Taylor Brown of Austin, Texas, and Sam and Julia Alswang of Washington, D.C. 

     In her final years, Margie was surrounded by a dedicated team of compassionate caregivers. They took extraordinary care of her, treating her as they would their own mothers. Our heartfelt thanks go out to these individuals who went beyond all measures of common duty.

     A brief funeral service will take place on Monday, April 14, 2025, at 11:30 a.m. in the courtyard of Westview Abbey Mausoleum & Chapel, 1680 Ralph David Abernathy Boulevard, Atlanta, GA 30310, followed by a private interment for immediate family. 

     If you would like to honor Margie’s memory, the family requests a donation in her name to Trees Atlanta Inc., 825 Warner Street SW, Suite A, Atlanta, GA 30310; (www.treesatlanta.org/support-us/tributetree/) or Memory Matters, P.O. Box 22330, Hilton Head Island, SC 29925; www.mymemorymatters.org).