Margie Adelaide Chapman Wilkinson

                                         Margie Adelaide Chapman Wilkinson

On April 23rd, 2025, at 97 years young, Margie Adelaide Chapman Wilkinson peacefully slipped the bonds of this life and went to be in the arms of her Jesus, her husband Ray, her daughter Diane and all her other loved ones gone on before.    A celebration of her amazing life will be held Saturday, April 26, 2025, at Shadybrook Baptist Church in Charlotte, NC. Visitation with the family will be held at 10:30 am with service beginning at 11:30 followed by interment in Forest Lawn West Cemetery.

Our mom was born in a little farmhouse in Connelly Springs, NC on September 25th 1927, the first child to David Chapman - “Papaw” and Lois Townsend Chapman - “Mamaw”.  Margie was one of six children – Margie Chapman (Ray), Harold Chapman, Eugene Chapman (Louise), Carroll Chapman (Betty), Doris Chapman Robinson (Paul) and Jo Anne Chapman Zimmerman (Glen). 

Margie was born in that tumultuous time, between the end of the roaring twenties and the beginning of the great depression.  David and Lois were hard working parents, but times were hard. Christmas gifts were often some fruit and a new pair of shoes, and those shoes needed to last until the following Christmas.  With mom the oldest, as the family grew, she took on some of the work of looking after and helping to raise her younger siblings.  They developed a closeness and a bond that endured all of Mom’s life.  I have great memories of the brothers and sisters, and Mamaw, on her porch, carrying on, poking fun and loving on each other. 

Margie grew from a child through the depression and World War Two, to a young woman at the end of the forties and the beginning of the industrial revolution.

She met her love, Ray, on Halloween night when dad asked her to borrow her lipstick for his costume.  Pretty smooth, pop.  They were married the following June and never looked back.  For over six decades until our dad’s passing in 2010, they had a wonderful life together.  Margie had three children, Diane Owen, Johnny Wilkinson (the fav) and Mark Wilkinson (Rona). Seven grandchildren, Michelle Tkach (John), Jason Wilkinson (Alicia), Alexis Owen, Zachary Owen, Rumer Robinson (Alex), Jacob Wilkinson, and Max Wilkinson.  And six great grandchildren, Frank, Allie and Maddy Tkach and Nathan, Alaina and Eliza Wilkinson.

Our mom was opinionated, smart, hilariously funny and as witty and sharp as a tack till the very end.  And if you decided to verbally joust or poke fun with mom (which we did all too often) you would quickly find she could easily give as good as she got.

She was a stylish and classy lady who loved sewing and was a master-class seamstress, designing and creating her own clothes.  Margie loved her flowers and her vegetable garden. She loved reading books and writing cards and letters to her friends and had the most elegant handwriting of anyone I ever knew.  She would say, if you get a card, you have to send one. The beach was a special place for her.  She would go often and hated when it was time to leave.  Mom loved cooking and was wonderful at it. Her kitchen was the center of the Wilkinson universe all my life. She would cook delicious food for her family, friends and her church family and regularly have amazing holiday meals for 20+ of us.  If you showed up at mom’s, she was gonna feed you. 

Margie loved her life and, at 97, was looking forward to the future and planning her summer.  She loved her friends and her family, but most of all she loved God and instilled a strong faith into us.  I rarely went to moms when her Bible wasn’t on her table, opened to what she had been reading.  And God loved her back.  Mom would pray fervently and daily for all of us and if there was a concern, mom would take it to the feet of Jesus and would often get a direct answer.

Wednesday, when she was called home to be with Him, was the greatest day of those 97 years.  She was reunited with our sister Diane, whom she had grieved and missed every day since her passing.  I can only imagine there was a giant hug, that's still going on.  She got to touch the face of Jesus and take rest in his arms. And now she is in Heaven, for all eternity, healthy and pain-free, maybe 25 and with our dad, dancing on a beach she never has to leave.

Online condolences may be made at www.HankinsandWhittington.com.