Barbara Hurlburt

HURLBURT, Barbara Yost

Barbara Ann Yost was born December 6, 1926 in Miami, Florida. She was the daughter of John Vernon Yost of Roanoke, Virginia, and Emma Laura Wesley of Atlanta, Georgia. She grew up in Atlanta in a Georgian Colonial Revival house, built by her father, in the Peachtree Battle neighborhood. She was a student at E. Rivers Elementary School, and after graduating from North Fulton High School, attended Ohio University where she was a member of the Chi Omega sorority.

The South eventually called her home and she returned to Atlanta where a blind date at the Druid Hills Country Club changed her life. She met Stewart Albert Hurlburt of East Orange, New Jersey -- recently discharged from the Marine Corps with the rank of Captain, and newly arrived in Atlanta after graduating from Harvard Business School in 1948. She was as beautiful as he was handsome; both were smart as whips. Married in Atlanta in 1949, they lived first in New Jersey, where she took the train into New York City every day to work for Lever Brothers, and then established their life in Atlanta where Stewart worked for the Lockheed Corporation. They had two children, Steven Ross Hurlburt, and Mark Lyon Hurlburt.

Barbara designed the mid-century modern house the family grew up in near Chastain Park. In the early-'60s she was a forerunner of the '70s back-to-the-earth movement, producing a vast, organic, backyard garden every summer. She designed three more dwellings: a modest family beach cottage in Garden City Beach, South Carolina, a traditional family home on the Chattahoochee River in Roswell, Georgia, and a mountainside retreat in Highlands, North Carolina. Each house survives her.

She was an avid card player: Her specialty was gin, and for most of their lives she and a group of childhood friends got together for a monthly ladies luncheon and afternoon of bridge. She was also a collector: her annual Santa-lined mantle rivaled any Bergdorf Goodman window display, her varied patterns of china and silverware guaranteed a different experience at each holiday meal, and her colletion of Beanie Babies was as vast as it is worthless.

Barbara and Stewart were members of the Capital City Club, Atlanta, Georgia, and the Cullasaja Club, Highlands, North Carolina. They were devout Christians, members of the Mt. Paran Church of God, and took the New Testament message of stewardship to heart. Barbara gave generously to charitable organizations of all stripes, as well as to friends and family in need, never seeking the spotlight or credit for her kindness and charity. She was, as a family member said, "the angel nobody knows about."

She was preceded in death by her two brothers, John and Paul Yost; her sister, Jane Gouldman; her son, Mark; and her husband, Stewart. She is survived by her son, Steven and daugher-in-law, Sandie Hurlburt; three grandchildren: Rebecca Emmalee Causey, Jenny Catherine Hurlburt, James Ethan Hurlburt; granddaughter-in-law, Ashley Ann Hurlburt; and several nieces and nephews. Burial was held privately at Arlington Memorial Park. A celebration of life will be held in the spring. In lieu of flowers, her family encourages others to be "angels nobody knows about."