Nov. 13, 1922 – April 4, 2016

SOMERVILLE, Texas — Services for Eula Juanita “Nita” Ratcliff Rutherford, 93, of Lyons, Texas, who died Monday, April 4, 2016, will be 2 p.m. Thursday at Strickland Funeral Home Chapel in Somerville, Texas.

Visitation will be from 9 a.m. until service time Thursday at the funeral home.

Mrs. Rutherford was born Nov. 13, 1922, in Natchez, the daughter of Andy Theodore Ratcliff and Eula Juanita Byrd Ratcliff.

Nita began working at the age of 16 for Blue Bell Manufacturing in Mississippi until she was 24. She then moved to Houston and went to work for Foley’s Department Store in the children’s shoe department. She worked there for 20 years and then retired.

She also worked two years for Levitz Jewelry Store and for the City of Houston Water Department until retirement.

Nita had two sons, Thomas “Tommy” Edwin Rutherford and James Ronald “Ron” Rutherford. After her youngest son, Ron died, she relocated to North Carolina to be with her oldest son, Tommy. After Tommy’s death, she returned to Texas to live with her sister, Alma Lee Ratcliff Lucas and her husband, Edward “Eddie” Lucas in Lyons for the past five years.

Mrs. Rutherford was preceded in death by her parents; one brother, Otis Edwin Ratcliff; two sisters, Edith Marie Ratcliff and Dorothy Theresa Ratcliff; and her two sons.

Survivors include her sister, Alma, and her husband, Edward; and a number of grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews.