Donald Wray Rutherford

Graveside services for Donald Wray Rutherford of Stanley, Louisiana will be held at 10 a.m. on Monday, August 17, at Union Springs Baptist Church, 1032 Hwy. 191 in Converse. The service will be officiated by Bro. Shawn Thrapp and assisted by Bro. Timothy Roberson. The family will receive visitors at Rose-Neath Funeral Home in Logansport from 5-7 p.m. on Sunday, August 16. Donald was born in Mansfield on December 20, 1945, the eldest of Minneola and Hershel Rutherford's four children. He passed away on August 13, 2020 at Willis-Knighton Pierremont Medical Center in Shreveport from complications related to COVID-19. The family is deeply grateful for the care provided to him by the Critical Care Unit staff during this extremely difficult time. His survivors include his wife, Mary; two daughters and sons-in-law, Christine Rutherford-Williams and Sidney Williams of Williamsburg, Virginia, and Abby and Bridges Hall of Shreveport; two step-daughters and step-sons-in-law, Melanie and Brad Hughes of Joaquin, Texas, and Meredith and Kade Rogers of Joaquin, Texas; and six beloved grandsons, Benjamin and Simon Hall, Brock and Mason Hughes, and Kannon and Karson Rogers. He is also survived by two brothers and sisters-in-law, Lily and William Lynn Rutherford and Jill and W.H. "Buddy" Rutherford; his mother- and father-in-law, Ruby and Howard Rushing, and numerous nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by his sister, Kay Rutherford Woodard, and his parents. Donald was a 1963 graduate of Converse High School. He was employed by Southern Natural Gas Company for the majority of his career, living in St. Bernard Parish for three years and in Ruston for almost 20 years before returning to Northwest Louisiana, where he also worked for JW Measurement Company before his retirement. Donald had an innate appreciation of the natural world and enjoyed being outdoors, particularly walking "on his land", and spent many hours meticulously maintaining his lawn. The honking of migratory geese flying overhead stopped him in his tracks, as did the hooting of an owl. He kept a close watch on the weather, and his daughters could count on him to alert them to any approaching storms. They cherish boyhood photos of him posing with the prize-winning pigs he raised and remember him pulling apples from a jacket pocket to feed to Louise, a favorite cow. Donald was a fan of Tommy Lee Jones, John Fogarty, Chuck Berry, Gene Autry, the Sons of the Pioneers, Willie Nelson and James Lee Burke - in no particular order - and never missed a Saints game. He passed down his love for pralines, the joys of homemade chicken salad and his belief that blackberry is the best cobbler. Serving Donald as pallbearers will be his good friend Don Alexander, his four sons-in-law Sidney Williams, Bridges Hall, Brad Hughes and Kade Rogers, his elder grandsons Benjamin Hall and Brock Hughes, and nephews Brian Green and Kendall Rutherford. Honorary pallbearers will be his younger grandsons Simon Hall, Mason Hughes, Kannon and Karson Rogers, and Martha and Joe Sayers. In lieu of flowers, the family encourages gifts to the First Baptist Church of Logansport or to the charity of your choice. The family greatly appreciates your telephone calls, cards, letters, and other expressions of sympathy.