Harriet "Tammy" Safter

FUNERAL SERVICE: Friday, February 13, 2026, 2:00 PM at Greenlawn Memorial Park in Roswell.

LIVESTREAM: Please click here to attend the graveside funeral service via livestream.

Harriet Tamara (Tammy) Safter of Big Canoe, GA, passed away peacefully on February 10, 2026, after living with Alzheimer’s Disease for more than 16 years. Tammy was pre-deceased by her father and mother as well as her husband, Warren Safter, who passed in January 2017, after 52 years of marriage. She leaves behind her daughters, Sheri (Craig) Magram and Michelle Epstein (Scott Grayson) as well as grandchildren Justin, Brandon, and Johanna.

Tammy was born in 1945 in North Miami Beach, Florida. She attended the University of Miami where she worked for the University of Miami newspaper and took an active part in the civil rights movement. Following her graduation with a journalism degree, she moved to New York and married Warren, in 1966, after having met him at age 16 at Cedar Lane Bungalow Colony in the Catskills. In New York, she worked for Popular Mechanics. She moved with Warren to Biloxi, MS, when he was stationed there for basic training during the Vietnam War. She worked as an English teacher while he was stationed in Alaska and, later, they had their first child.

After traveling around the country together for a year, they settled in Clemson, SC, where Tammy and Warren completed graduate degrees and had their second child. Tammy began a career in counseling and Warren worked as a high school science teacher in Greenville, SC. In the early 1980s, they moved to Athens, GA, where Tammy received her Ph.D. in Gifted Education under Dr. E. Paul Torrance and Warren worked in public safety at the University of Georgia. Following graduation, Tammy taught graduate degree classes at UGA, gave lectures and seminars on gifted education across the state and around the world, and authored/co-authored many articles and several books. In the last years before retirement, she worked as an educational psychologist in Aiken, South Carolina, where they had moved for Warren to oversee public safety at UGA’s Savannah River Ecology Lab.

The two retired to Big Canoe, GA, in their 50s, and had many years of camping, hiking, and travel all over the world, in addition to many months at Disney World. They enjoyed theater, played lots of racquetball and ping pong, and spent a lot of time with their grandchildren. Tammy was an avid reader and built a collection of thousands of books. She volunteered throughout her life and supported causes she was passionate about. She was a loving, caring, and funny person, always ready with a smile and a hug, and a dance around the house to Johnny Mathis or Barbara Streisand. She lived a full life, feeling much love from her husband, incredible joy from her children and grandchildren, fulfillment from her career, and the support of good friends and family. After she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s he participated in many trials and fought to stave off the disease as long as possible. It has been a long goodbye. Now her spirit can soar.

In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the Georgia Alzheimer’s Association.