Born to Richard Birnie and Anna Frost, Marion Birnie and her siblings enjoyed unusual privilege in the post-Civial War south. Richard and his brother, Charles Wainwright Birnie were cotton shipping agents in Charleston. The Birnies and Anna Frost's family were descendants of antebellum free black families. Education and service were strong components of both families and Marion strongly embraced these tenets throughout her life. She married South Carolina State College (SCSC) President Robert Shaw Wilkinson in 1897. Known as "Mother Birnie", Marion was a formidable force in public service and president of the Sunlight Club, the SCFCWC and an officer in the National Association of Colored Women. She chaired the SCSC YWCA Advisory Board and led the state Commission on Interracial Cooperation. She was also an officer in the International Council of Women of the Darker Races and a member of both the County Executive Committee of the Red Cross and the Board of Trustees of Voorhees College, Denmark, South Carolina. As the "First Lady" of the SCSC, she was loved and respected by students and African Americans throughout South Carolina and the south. Benjamin Mays, president of Morehouse College, described her as "South Carolina's outstanding Negro woman; indeed, in programs designed to help the poor and improve race relations, in my opinion, she was the leading woman in South Carolina."

Her siblings were equally successful and were prominent in healthcare as well as politics, both in the south as well as in the north.

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Interred in Wilkinson Family Plot:
Wilkinson, Robert Shaw, 1865 - 1932
Wilkinson, Marion Raven 1870 - 1936
Wilkinson, Lula L, 1905 - 1994
Wilkinson, Robert Shaw, 1899 - 1984
Wilkinson, Melissa Ruth, 1904 - 1980
Birnie, Richard, 1845 - 1938