Ms. Pearl Thurston was born May 1, 1909 in Scottsboro, Alabama to Alma Elizabeth and Joseph Asbury Rutherford. When Pearl was six months old, the Rutherfords traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma by train to help the two-year-old 46th state begin its colorful life.

At age sixteen, Ms. Thurston enrolled in Oklahoma A&M College, which is now known as Oklahoma State University. This was at the beginning of the "Great Depression." As a student in the School of Business, she had the skills and the will to earn her way through four years of college, and she graduated in 1929 with excellent grades and a B.S. in Business degree.
Jobs were very scarce when Ms. Thurston graduated from college, but she was very fortunate to find a teaching position in the Ardmore, Oklahoma High School. It was in Ardmore where she met her husband-to-be, James Thurston.

After teaching for several years, Ms. Thurston moved to Oklahoma City to work as Secretary to the Chairman of the Oklahoma Transportation Commission, known then as the "Oklahoma Highway Commission." Two years later, she and James Thurston were married on February 10, 1935 and moved to Tulsa where he was employed by Noble Drilling Company. His work for Noble required many moves, and in 1936, Elizabeth Ann Thurston was born in Ardmore, Oklahoma. Laura Ruth Thurston was born four years later in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Ms. Thurston was a member of the Boston Avenue Methodist Church. Pearl had a passion for her flower garden and arranging flowers. She enjoyed many years of showing her flowers, which won many blue ribbons, and working at the Tulsa Garden Center on flower shows. Her flower garden was her love, and she enjoyed caring for it until she was 102 years of age and had a bad fall while trimming a branch from a favorite shrub.

Pearl Thurston was preceded in death by her husband, James Thurston; her daughter, Elizabeth
Ann Knight; her sister, Pansy Lee Hearn; and her brother, Tommy A Rutherford. She is survived
by her daughter, Laura Sullenberger; five grandchildren, Elizabeth Sutherland, Andrew Knight,
Fred Knight, Phillip Knight, and Jo Ann Spitzer; and eleven great grandchildren, Dougal
Sutherland, Ian Sutherland, Julia Knight, Elizabeth Knight, Isabel Knight, Katherine Knight, Riley
Anne Knight, Christopher Knight, Craig James Knight, Megan Spitzer and Anna Spitzer.
Memorial Service will be conducted by Dr. Bill Tankersley at Boston Avenue United Methodist Church at 1:00 P.M. on Saturday, August 27th. in the Rose Chapel.

Moore's Funeral Home, Rosewood Chapel- 918-744-1202, www.moorefuneral.com