Virlyn Rutherford Wingard

COLUMBIA - Funeral service for Virlyn Rutherford Wingard, 88, will be held at 4:00 p.m. Sunday, June 1, 2014, at Ebenezer Lutheran Church, with burial in Greenlawn Memorial Park. The family will receive friends from 5 until 7:00 p.m. Saturday, May 31, 2014, at Dunbar Funeral Home, Devine Street Chapel. A memorial service will be held at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, June 3, 2014 at the Foothills Presbyterian Retirement Community in Easley. Mrs. Wingard, formerly of Columbia, died on Wednesday, May 28, 2014. Born in New Brookland (now West Columbia), was the daughter of the late Robert Bruce Rutherford and the late Ida Reynolds Rutherford. She was educated in the Columbia Public Schools, and graduated from Columbia High School in 1943, in the final February graduating class. After high school, she went to work in the treasurer’s office at the South Carolina State Hospital. She retired from the State of South Carolina after 33 years of service to several state agencies. She was a lifelong member of Ebenezer Lutheran Church where she sang in choirs, taught Sunday School, and served in many other capacitates. She was also a member of the Women of the ELCA. Upon her move to Easley, she became an associate member of St. Matthias Lutheran Church. It was after church on a Sunday in 1945 that she met Shelton Carl Wingard. They were married from 1946 until his death in 2000. Music was a major interest from childhood, and she participated in choral music programs at Wardlaw Junior High School as well as Columbia High. She also sang in the Columbia Choral Society. She married into a Clemson family, and was a long time member of IPTAY. As long as her health permitted, she attended home football games at Clemson. In more recent years, she continued to watch her beloved Tigers play on television. Surviving are a daughter and son-in-law, Teresa Wingard and Walter Corbett Betsill of Easley; two grandsons, William Shelton and Jackson Gregory Betsill of Easley; and a sister, Joyce Rutherford Jones of Midland, Mich. The family is most grateful to the Foothills Presbyterian Retirement Community and Lutheran Hospice for their kind and compassionate care. Memorials may be made to Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1301 Richland Street, Columbia SC 29201; the Foothills Presbyterian Retirement Community, 205 Bud Nalley Drive, Easley, SC 29642 ‎; St. Matthias Lutheran Church, 501 Powdersville Road, Easley 29642; or Lutheran Hospice, 1505 Blanding Street, Columbia SC 29201.