Rush Springs, Grady County

Rush Springs Gazette

September 1949

Funeral services for Leslie ETTER of Phoenix, Arizona were held at the cemetery Friday afternoon with Rev. COWAN officiating.   Leslie N ETTER was born March 6, 1893 in Jack County, Texas. He passed from this life in Phoenix, Arizona, September 18 1949 at the age of 56 years, 6 months, and 12 days.
He was united in marriage to Miss Jossie FITZPATRICK. To this union was born 7 children; Eva URSHEY of Tulsa; Eva (Iva) GREANEY of Weatherford; John ETTER of Marlow; Marie DOBBINS of Pampa, Texas; Mrs. Merill LEADBETTER of Wichita Falls, Texas, and 8 grandchildren survive his passing.
Two brothers, W.E. ETTER of Fletcher; Edd ETTER of Ft. Worth, Texas; 2 sisters, Mrs. Alice BARNES of Los Angeles, California; Mrs. Callie MOBLEY of Phoenix, Arizona also survives his passing.   Mr. ETTER was a former resident of Rush Springs.

Submitted By Margie Etter

August 1972

Rush Springs Gazette

Funeral Services For Haskell BRUNER Were Held Monday
Funeral services for Byron Haskell BRUNER, 64, Route 2, Rush Springs, were held Aug. 14, 1972 at the Southern Baptist Church in Rush Springs.
BRUNER was born Sept. 28, 1907 in Rush Springs and died about 7:10 pm Thursday, Aug. 10, 1972, at his home following a heart attack. He had been an oil field worker and farmer. He was married on Sept. 3, 1938 to Miss J. FERGUSON in Chickasha.
Interment was in the Rush Springs Cemetery under direction of the Callaway-Smith Funeral Home.
Pallbearers were Lee CRITTENDON, Johnnie SPEARS, Woodrow DUKE, Raymond GIBBS, Cleatus DOYEL, Henry SWEANY, Junior HALE and O.Z. HARRISON.
Survivors include his wife of the home, two sons, four daughters, one brother, three sisters, and nine grandchildren.

Submitted by Dyer [email protected]

JUNE 6, 1985

CHARLIE TOUCHES AWAY WARTS
Charlie FERGUSON's mysterious talent may never land him in "The Twilight Zone," but if Rod SERLING ever suffered from warts, FERGUSON would've been the man to see.
There are secrets aplenty surrounding Charlie's special skill, which consists of lifting warts from people with nothing more than the lightest and simplest of touches from one of his index fingers.
For one, FERGUSON will not tell how or why his magic touch works. For another, he will not even tell if he understands why his touch spells doom for warts.
The manner in which Charlie discovered his talent is another mystery: he just decided one day 30 years ago that he should start healing warts. And the greatest secret of all is that the people he heals are never aware their warts are gone until one day they look down and there is no trace of where the little nasties have been.
FERGUSON, an 86-year-old Rush Springs resident who has packed together a lot of farming, fishing and wasting warts, takes his talent in quiet, almost timid, stride.
"It's just a gift I have," FERGUSON explained from his daughter's home in Marlow Tuesday. "I've gotten rid of hundreds of warts but I've never taken any cash money for that service. Sometimes somebody I've cured comes along and buys me a steak dinner or something like that, but I've never accepted money."
FERGUSON said he has used his touch whenever anybody asked for a cure, and he remembers some very special cases from the past. "There was this one girl--she wasn't but about six or seven years old-- and she had 75 warts on her hands," FERGUSON related. "Well, I got rid of every one of them. Her mother came up to me one day and said that she washed that kid's hands four times a day and even she wasn't aware when the warts actually disappeared."
Then there was the case of M. BRUNER, an old farming buddy that FERGUSON knew back when he worked on the Charlie HILL place west of Marlow. "He had these bleeding warts on his hands--they stood up maybe a half- inch or more. They were really big warts. I told BRUNER that I could get rid of those for him, but he said he might believe me if I had some special medicine from Paris or Berlin or somewhere. He said he didn't believe I could get rid of them just by touching them." "But then one day, about a month later, someone in the field asked him how his warts were getting along, and he looked at his hands and couldn't believe they were gone."
During an interview with this reporter, FERGUSON lightly touched three warts on the reporter's hand, requesting that he be contacted when the warts are gone.
"If it doesn't work, it will be the first time in 30 years," he said. There is an irony or ironies to the story, however. On the outside of FERGUSON's left index finger sits a wart. "It has been there a long time. I've tried, but I've never been able to get rid of it," Charlie said.

Submitted by Dyer [email protected]

1986

SERVICES PENDING FOR POTTER LAWMAN WHO DIED IN COLORADO SNOWSTORM
Funeral Services for Joe FERGUSON are pending with N.S. Griggs & Sons Funeral Directors.
Searchers Thursday morning found the body of the veteran Potter County sheriff's deputy who had been missing for two days in a snowstorm in the Colorado Rockies.
Potter County Chief Deputy Art TUPIN said Joe FERGUSON, 60, became separated from a six-man hunting party about 8 am Tuesday when heavy snows began falling in the Fraser, Colo., area. Heavy snows hampered about 40 rescuers' efforts searching for FERGUSON, with visibility cut to two feet at times. FERGUSON's body was found about 10:45 am Thursday on a logging road some distance from where he was last seen, deputies said. A group of hunters FERGUSON was with Tuesday spread out in mountainous terrain and then became separated when snow started falling, TUPIN said. "Apparently the weather came up rapidly and unexpectedly and the last time they saw him he was standing on a peak adjacent to them." FERGUSON, an experienced hunter and outdoorsman, was a corrections duty supervisor overseeing outside jail work details and trustee work crews, TUPIN said.
He was born in Sterling, Okla., had been employed by Potter County for 10 years. For the last six years, he had been a Potter County sheriff's deputy. He had been roads and grounds supervisor at Texas State Technical Institute. He was a member of First United Methodist Church in Groom and was a U.S. Navy veteran of World War II and the Korean War.
Survivors include his wife, a son, his mother Lulu FERGUSON of Rush Springs, Okla., a sister, and three brothers.

Submitted by Dyer [email protected]

1986

Dovie STILES 2/12/1923-1986
Olton, TX
Dovie STILES, 63, died Tuesday.
Services will be at 2 pm Thursday in Main Street Church of Christ with George O'BRIANT, minister, and Loren HARPER of Amarillo officiating. Burial will be in Olton Cemetery by Foskey Funeral Home.
Mrs. Stiles, born in Tishomingo, Okla., moved to Olton in 1952 from Hedley. She was a member of Main Street Church of Christ. She married Jess Anderson STILES in 1938 in Rush Springs, Okla. He died in 1981.
Survivors include two sons, Dwayne and John; two daughters, V. BARTLETT and R. SCEARCE; her mother, Lula FERGUSON of Rush Springs, Okla.; a sister, J. BRUNER; four brothers, Joe FERGUSON of Amarillo, Tex., D. FERGUSON, F. FERGUSON and R. FERGUSON; nine grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
Memorial may be to Olton Cemetery Association or Don & Sybil Harrington Cancer Center in Amarillo, Tex.

Submitted by Dyer [email protected]

December 1993

Rush Springs Gazette

FERGUSON
Lula Eastel FERGUSON, 96, died Friday, Dec. 3, 1993, in Duncan Regional Hospital.
Funeral services were held at 2:00 pm Monday, Dec. 6, in the First Assembly of God Church of Ruch Springs with the Rev. Lynn Plant officiating. Music was presented by Sue MARTIN.
Burial was in Rush Springs Cemetery under the direction of Callaway-Smith-Cobb Funeral Home.
Mrs. Ferguson was born Dec. 28, 1896, in Wise Co., Texas, the daughter of Lee READ and Texanna (CAMPBELL) READ.

Obituary

Lula Eastel FERGUSON, 96, died Friday, Dec. 3, 1993, in Duncan Regional Hospital.
Funeral services were held at 2:00 pm Monday, Dec. 6, in the First Assembly of God Church of Rush Springs with the Rev. Lynn PLANT officiating. Music was presented by Sue MARTIN. Burial was in Rush Springs Cemetery under the direction of Callaway-Smith-Cobb Funeral Home.
Mrs. FERGUSON was born Dec. 28, 1896, in Wise Co., Texas, the daughter of Lee READ and Texanna (CAMPBELL) READ.
She had been a resident of the Rush Springs area most of her life. She had also been a resident of Marlow Manor Nursing Home in Marlow for a year and a half. She was married July 14, 1923, in Mill Creek to Charley Benjamin FERGUSON. He preceded her in death April 24, 1986. She was also preceded in death by two daughters and three sons.
Survivors include one daughter, three sons, 27 grandchildren, 53 great- grandchildren, several great-great-grandchildren, and one sister. Pallbearers were grandchildren.

Submitted by Dyer [email protected]