Samuel Morton (S. Morton) Rutherford, II., 83, long-time Tulsa, attorney and a member of a pioneer Tulsa family, died Friday, May 26, 1978 at St. Simeon's Episcopal Home, where he had been living for several years. A native of Atoka, OK, he attended the University of Oklahoma and Cumberland University of Lebanon, TN. He served as a Common Pleas court judge from 1929-1931 and was a state senator from Tulsa County from 1931-1934.The Rutherfords have family roots that date back to 1817, when Rutherford's grandfather, Samuel Morton Rutherford, Sr., a Virginia native who fought with Andrew Jackson at New Orleans, was a partner in the establishment of the first white trading post at the mouth of the Verdigris River. S. Morton's father, Samuel Morton Rutherford, I, also a lawyer, was a Greek and Latin scholar and Undersheriff at Fort Smith, AR, in Judge Parker's heyday, and was appointed U. S. Commissioner at Atoka in Indian Territory in 1893 and U. S. Marshal in 1895. S. Morton came to Tulsa, OK in 1925 and shared an office with James W. Cosgrove, who had practiced with S. Morton's father. Although they shared an office, S. Morton and Mr. Cosgrove did not practice together. S. Morton's father, Samuel Morton, I, was killed in a traffic accident, December 16, 1922, on his way home from a banquet honoring Fred P. Branson of Muskogee, OK, who had just been elected to the Supreme Court. In 1925, S. Morton launched a political career, capped by a managerial role in the election in 1942 of E. H. Moore on the Republican ticket to the Senate seat his father had failed to win. He was an infantryman in the U. S. Army during World War I and received his 50-year pin from the Masons. He was a member of Trinity Episcopal Church. S. Morton was survived by his wife, Dema B. of the home; a son, Samuel Morton Rutherford, III (died November 21, 1996) and his wife, Norma Jo Jones Rutherford (died in 2004); a daughter Mrs. Sally K. Dunlap of Newport Beach, CA; and two grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his grandfather, Samuel Morton Rutherford, Sr.; parents, Samuel Rutherford Morton I (died 12/16/22) and wife, Sallie Dillard Rutherford (died in 1926).

Service 11 a.m., Tuesday, May 30, 1978
Trinity Episcopal Church
501 S. Cincinnati Ave., Tulsa, OK

Interment at Greenhill Cemetery, Muskogee, OK
1500 North York, Muskogee, OK


Moore's Eastlawn Chapel
918-622-155