Each fall Cathy Selig couldn’t wait to sit down with Shirlye Birnbrey for a chat. Though the conversation had a business tone, Birnbrey freely shared accounts from her youth, Selig said.
These annual visits were really to discuss Birnbrey’s philanthropic contribution to the Jewish Federation of Greater Atlanta, but the talk was often more about their shared Jewish heritage than money.
“Going to speak to Shirlye was a pleasure and a highlight because she was so giving,” Selig said. “She would share her stories with me, and I looked forward to that.”
Shirlye Wilensky Kaufman Birnbrey died Wednesday morning in her sleep. She was 85.
A graveside service is planned for 2 p.m. Sunday at Crest Lawn Memorial Park, Atlanta. Dressler’s Jewish Funeral Care is in charge of arrangements.
Born and reared in Augusta, the former Shirlye Wilensky graduated from Tubman High School in 1944 and enrolled in the former Augusta State University, now Georgia Regents University. There she earned an associate’s degree in science in 1946. She later attended the University of Georgia, where she earned a journalism degree, her son said. She worked in New York for a short period of time before returning to Augusta, where she married George Kaufman in 1950.
In 1962, the Kaufmans opened Kaufman Supply, a distributor of supplies for manufactured housing. The couple ran the company together until George Kaufman’s death in 1983. She remained with the company, which also employed three of the Kaufman’s four children, until it was sold in 1998 under the leadership of their son Richard Kaufman, who died in 2010.
After Shirlye Kaufman married Henry Birnbrey in 1990 she continued a life of travel and philanthropy.
“She learned philanthropy from her father,” said her cousin Evelyn Lefkoff. “Whatever she did, she did it very quietly.”
And she hardly, if ever, did things for herself, preferring to give to others, said Ann Kaplan, a longtime friend.
“She was very rare because you just don’t come across people like that all of the time,” Kaplan said.
Jeff Kaufman said his mother enjoyed supporting groups and organizations that contributed to her life.
“I’ll never forget, she would tell the story that she once received charity to attend a summer camp when she was younger,” he said. “And when she was able, she always gave to that camp, and several others.”
In addition to her second husband of 23 years and her son Jeff, she is survived by daughter, Karen Senft of Atlanta; son, Mark Kaufman of Dunwoody; brother, Leonard Wilensky of Augusta; sisters, Peggy Singer of Baltimore, Md., and Elise Rosenfeld of Tysons Corner, Va.; stepchildren, Anita Stein of Atlanta, Judy Robkin of Atlanta, David Birnbrey of Atlanta, and Eddie Birnbrey of Atlanta; nine grandchildren; 26 step grandchildren; 2 great-grandchildren; and 10 step-great-grandchildren.
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