Deet & Anna Rutherford from Baca County Book

More from Baca County (the big book). You might recall Deet was the one who found the rattlesnake under the table. Every where we turn we see the Rutherfords involved in education.

Deet and Anna Rutherford

Forrest (Deet) Whaley Rutherford, son of James and Annie (Rollins) Rutherford, was born near Klondike, Oklahoma in December 1900. He grew up on a farm near Vilas. While his older brothers worked away from home, Deet stayed and worked the farm for his mother, gaining valuable experience in both farming methods and accepting responsibility.

In 1927 Deet married Anna Crill, and they moved to a farm southwest of Walsh, where he farmed and raised cattle. As he had helped his younger brothers, he also helped his neighbors, both with advice and with practical help when that seemed needed.

Deet went to school at Vilas. At one time during his school days he misbehaved and his teacher, Elsie Schweizer, jerked him by the shirt front and all the buttons popped off. Many years later when he was a gray haired old man he saw her on the street and spoke to her. When she didn’t know him, he asked “Don’t you remember jerking the buttons off my shirt?” She promptly answered, “Deet Rutherford!”

Deet and Anna had two daughters, Mary Margaret (now deceased), and Jackie Dee Graham of Spearman, Texas, who teaches there.

Deet served many years on the Vilas school board. At one time when the district had overspent its resources he was instrumental in getting it back on sound footing by getting people to cooperate and work out their problems.

That is one of the most useful things he taught us younger Rutherfords – no matter what problems we have, if we work together we can solve them. By Darrell Rutherford