Anne Rutherford

Anne (Graf) Rutherford, Anne (Graf)
Age 47
Of St. Paul
died peacefully on April 16, after a vigorous two-year battle with cancer, surrounded in her final days by her family and many friends. Husband James Rutherford, daughter Madeline, 17 and son Thomas, 11; all of Saint Paul's Highland Park neighborhood, survive her. Anne was the youngest daughter of Barbara (Fister) Graf, Shrewsbury, MA and the late David M. Graf, formerly of Alliance, OH. She is also survived by sister, Caroline Graf Reich (Joel) of Shrewsbury, MA and brother David M. Graf, Jr., Richmond, VA. She was born in Orange, N.J and raised in Alliance, OH where she became active in community theater, marching band and competitive swimming. She was a confirmed youth member of the First United Presbyterian Church. She and her family spent summers in Stonington, CT where, later, she would meet her husband, Jim. Anne graduated from The Wooster School, Danbury, CT and received a B.A in theater arts at Heidelberg University, OH. In 1994 Anne and Jim settled in Saint Paul, where she joined the Ordway Theater as house manager. After a child-raising hiatus, she returned to a similar position until recently at Walker Place, Minneapolis, a community she considered her extended family. Anne expressed her deep gratitude for the extraordinary love and support of so many who rallied around her family in recent months. Also, special thanks to the staff at The Pillars Hospice Home. A celebration of Anne's life will be held at 1:00PM on Saturday Apr. 21 at GLORIA DEI LUTHERAN CHURCH, 700 Snelling Ave S, St Paul, MN 55116. In lieu of flowers the family requests that memorials be sent to the Doctors Without Borders (US) charity at www.doctorswithoutborders.org.