Gay Nell Rutherford

Gay Nell Rutherford, 85 of Waco, Texas, passed away peacefully at home on Thursday, May 23, 2024. Services celebrating her life will be held at Pecan Grove Funeral Home in Waco, Texas on Thursday, May 30. There will be a brief visitation before the service at 9:30am. The service will begin at 10:00am. Graveside service will be at Beehouse Cemetery in Pearl, Texas immediately following the funeral service. 

Gay was born on November 7, 1938, in Coryell County to Alva Homer Clay and Norma Lee Clay. She was employed at Hercules, McGregor, Texas for many years before she retired.   

She felt that it was her God-given purpose in life to advocate for her son, David, and for his special needs education. She also enjoyed oil painting, water skiing and bowling.  She had many beautiful paintings that her family has left to cherish.   

In her lifetime, Gay achieved so much.  She helped pass laws to help the handicap by going to Washington, DC, to lobby Congress.  She was also the President of the Association for Retarded Citizens of the United States, presently known as the ARC of the United States.  She was named a delegate to Washington, DC, in May of 1977 at the Whitehouse Conference on Handicapped Individuals, Texas Conference.  Gay was also deemed an angel to Retarded Citizens through supporting the Montgomery County Center for the Retarded.  And she opened the first group home for the handicapped in Conroe, Texas. 

In her spare time, she loved to go dancing with her colleagues while working at Hercules, where she eventually retired.  She then went on to work for Paul J. Meyer for many years where she handled trademarks.
 
Gay was proceeded in death by her parents, Norma Lee and Alva Homer Clay; her siblings, Alma “Fritz” Green and Norma Euvone Brewer; sons, David C. Rutherford and Robert A. Rutherford; and grandson, Joseph Wayne Dowdy.

Gay is survived by her daughter, Pamela Dowdy and husband Don Jenkins, Pam’s daughter Halie Wells and husband Seth Wells, great grandchildren Julian Dowdy and Olive Adkins; granddaughter Jennifer Rutherford and friend Jacob Basquez; many nieces, nephews and cousins; dear friends Mary Gilliam and Elizabeth Goins. 

We want to thank the many caregivers at St. Catherine’s and Community Hospice who treated Gay with grace and dignity in her final days.