Martha Street Culp

Martha Street Culp, a resident of Life Care Center in Gray, died Friday, May 6, 2016, at 100 years, 7 months and 2 days of age. She was born on November 4, 1915, in Hokes Bluff, Alabama. She often recounted the story that she remembered when all the party-line telephones rang a week after her third birthday to announce the end of World War I. She was educated in the public schools of Alabama, graduating from high school at age 15. She then went to Jacksonville State Teachers College (now Jacksonville University), where she met her husband, D. P. Culp, and where they both obtained two year teaching certificates. Later they both pursued undergraduate and graduate degrees at Alabama Polytechnic Institute (now Auburn University). Most of her professional career was spent teaching elementary school in Alabama and New York. She also served for several years as registrar at Livingston State College (now the University of West Alabama), while her husband was president there. In 1968 the Culps moved to Johnson City, where Dr. Culp took over the presidency of East Tennessee State University and the challenge of establishing a medical school there. Mrs. Culp was an active and distinguished First Lady, engaged in many university and community activities. She was a state leader in supporting services for the developmentally disabled. After Dr. Culp?s retirement in 1977, she became a very successful real estate agent, a career she pursued into her 80s. A talented artist, Mrs. Culp also excelled at her various hobbies of needlepoint and quilt design and cross-breeding day lilies. Her campus plantings were widely renowned, and aficionados came from many states to view the blooms. In her later years, she spent much of her time writing poetry, short stories, and reminiscences. She won many local, state, and national awards for her writings. She was very active in community and civic organizations both in Alabama and Tennessee. Her memberships have included the DAR, the UDC, Pen Women, Delta Kappa Gamma, the Johnson City Monday Club, the Watauga Art League, and the Blue Ridge Quilters Guild, among others. For 45 years she was an ardent supporter of ETSU. In appreciation of her many endeavors on behalf of the university, the auditorium in the D. P. Culp University Center and the street in front of University School have been named in her honor. At the many university events she attended, she was always introduced as the First Lady Emerita. She was a faithful member of Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church, where she regularly attended the Virgil Anderson Sunday School Class. Mrs. Culp was preceded in death by her husband, Dr. D. P. Culp; her parents, Alonzo Cranford Street and Mattie Miller Street; two brothers and one sister. She is survived by her daughter, Jean Culp Flanigan, Ed.D., of Johnson City; two sons, James David Culp, J.D., and wife, Gretchen, of Johnson City, and John Stephen Culp, M.D., and wife, Jane, of Bristol; and six grandchildren: Stephen Flanigan, of Tainan, Taiwan; James Delos Culp and wife Kellie, of Johnson City; Sarah Culp Searles and husband Andy, of Knoxville; Jennifer Culp-Mitchell and husband Justin, of Johnson City; Joseph Culp and wife Hannah, of Bristol; and Rebecca Napreyeva and husband Max of Knoxville. She is also survived by six brothers and sisters and their spouses and numerous nieces and nephews. The family of Martha Street Culp will receive friends from 11:30 am to 1 pm and from 2 pm to 4 pm Tuesday, May 24, 2016 at Munsey Memorial United Methodist Church. A Celebration of Life service will follow at 4 pm Tuesday.