Mary A. Murphy

Known as Jerry by her friends and family, she was born in Heflin, Alabama on May 25, 1926. The oldest of three girls, she was the daughter of Allie Tom Wright and Robert O. Atkins. Surrounded by sisters, aunts, uncles, grandparents, many friends, and a pony, she had a very happy childhood.

After attending the Alabama College for Women in Montevallo for two years, she was encouraged by her cousin Alwyn to apply to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill. She was in the first class of women to graduate with degrees from the University in 1947 and was active in the Pi Beta Phi sorority. She was inducted into the Order of the Valkyries, established by UNC to “honor the extraordinary contributions of university women.”

With her major in zoology, she went to work in a nutrition lab at Emory Hospital in Atlanta. Shortly after beginning her work there, she met a medical student named Ralph Murphy. Their first meeting was notable in that he had “the worst sunburn I had ever seen.” This initial meeting led to romance, and they married June 10, 1949 at the First Methodist Church in Heflin. In the fall of that year, she accompanied him to his medical internship at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. This was their first experience of life above the Mason Dixon line, and they both remembered fondly the warmth and hospitality of fellow interns and their wives.

While in Ann Arbor, their first two daughters were born in 1951 and 1952. During the Korean War, they spent a difficult few months in Denison, Texas at an Army base, but afterwards, they headed to Atlanta where Ralph planned to join Jerry’s uncle in an internal medicine practice. Atlanta was home for the rest of their wonderful fifty-five year marriage. Ralph preceded her in death in 2004.

In 1955 and 1959, her last two children were born. Soon after settling in Atlanta, Jerry and Ralph joined Peachtree Road United Methodist Church and raised their children there. In addition, Jerry found time to serve in the Atlanta Symphony Women’s Auxiliary and the Women’s Auxiliary of the Fulton County Medical Society. She was an avid golfer into her eighties and competed in numerous tournaments, winning several awards. She was a member of the Cherokee Women’s Golf Association and the Atlanta Women’s Golf Association.

She is deeply mourned by a loving family who will greatly miss her sacrificial love, wise counsel and wonderful dry sense of humor. Jerry is survived by her two sisters: Jane Atkins McDade (Atlanta) and Sally Atkins Feuerlein(Birmingham) and by her four children: Carol Murphy Hubbard (Asheville,NC), Jane Murphy Simon (Atlanta), Susan Atkins Murphy (Atlanta), and Robert Wright Murphy (Atlanta), nine grandchildren: Katharine Simon Kurumada (Atlanta), Robert Clark Hubbard II (Hendersonville, NC), Laura O’Malley Simon (Atlanta), Michael Robert Simon (Atlanta), Margaret Harvil Williams (Atlanta), Robert Wright Murphy, Jr. (Atlanta), Julia Hubbard Porter (Philadelphia, PA), William Sanford Harvil (Atlanta), and Catherine Murphy Thomas (Atlanta), ten great-grandchildren, and two nieces and one nephew.

Plans are in process for a private family graveside service later in the spring in Heflin, Alabama.

The family wants to thank Kadan Homecare and the Longleaf Hospice for their compassionate care during Jerry’s final days.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations to the Shepherd Center and the Atlanta Symphony.