Eunice MacLean Rutledge

1928 - 2012

Eunice MacLean Freese Rutledge, 84, died Wednesday, Dec. 5, 2012, at her home. Memorial service: 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, Dec. 12, at All Saints' Episcopal Church, 5001 Crestline Rd. Visitation: 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday at Thompson's Harveson and Cole. Memorials: In lieu of flowers, please consider a donation to the Carley J. Rutledge Sarcoma Foundation, P.O. Box 35104, Fort Worth, Texas 76162, goldribboncure.org, Trinity Valley School, 7500 Dutch Branch Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76132, or All Saints Episcopal Church, 5001 Crestline Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76107. Eunice Rutledge, daughter of Simon Wilke and Eunice Brooks Freese, was born Nov. 22, 1928, and was raised in Fort Worth along with her two younger brothers, Dr. John Freese and Lee Freese, both still in Fort Worth. She graduated from Paschal High School and Wellesley College, with graduate study at TCU. In 1950 she married Dr. Robb Howard Rutledge, whom she met when he was a student at Harvard Medical School and she was at Wellesley. They celebrated their 59th anniversary in 2009. They are the parents of four children and 11 grandchildren. After marriage, the couple lived in Boston, Mass., where Mrs. Rutledge taught English at the Fessenden School and the River Country Day School. Following service in the Air Force by Dr. Rutledge and completion of his residency at Mass General Hospital, the couple moved to Fort Worth in 1957 where Dr. Rutledge opened a surgical practice. Mrs. Rutledge became active in volunteer organizations. She served on the boards of the Junior League of Fort Worth, of which she was president in 1967, Trinity Valley School, Streams and Valleys, the Fort Worth Park and Recreation Board, All Saints Parish Day School, the Fort Worth Nature Center, Trinity Terrace, the Fort Worth Lecture Foundation, of which she was chairman in 2007-2008, and others. She became a founding director of Summit National Bank (now Frost Bank) in 1975 and served until retirement in 1999. In 1982, Eunice, a certified financial planner, and partner, Aileen Neil, also a CFP, opened a financial planning practice, with an office in the Ridglea Bank Building. Always interested in education, the Rutledges, in cooperation with Trinity Valley School, sponsor an annual lecture inviting a nationally known speaker whom they hope will excite the students and give pleasure to the faculty. Eunice was a Camp Fire Girl leader for many years and enjoyed learning along with the young ladies, camping, crafts and homemaking skills. She was an enthusiastic tennis player and helped coach Girls Junior Development Tennis. She received the Fort Worth Tennis Patrons award in 1977. Eunice's greatest pleasure was the companionship and development of their four children. Over the years she loved to read aloud to each child and was always disappointed when the child graduated to reading alone. She would say, as her husband, Robb, had famously said upon retiring from his surgical practice, "I would like to be starting all over again." The family would like to extend a special thank-you to Dr. John Nugent and his assistant, Marie, and Community Hospice for their wonderful care and personal concern throughout her battle with cancer. Eunice was preceded in death by her parents and her husband of 59 years, Dr. Robb Rutledge. Survivors: Four children, David and his wife, Dale, Peter and his wife, Linda, Susan Mitchell and her husband, Ralph, and John and his wife, Laura; 11 grandchildren, Robb and his wife, Stephanie, Kate and her husband, Gene Schiappa, and Alan Rutledge, Rachel and Eric Rutledge, James and Andrew Mitchell, and Meredith, Blake, McCarley, and Grant Rutledge; brothers, John Freese and his wife, Jane, and Lee Freese and his wife, Dana; sister-in-law, Gerrie Rutledge; and 11 nephews and nieces.