Obituary for Emma Hanchett Crocker: http://www.phy.ilstu.edu/~wenning/mcmillin/darlington/darlington.htm

Mrs. George Crocker

Mrs. George Crocker Is Dead – Her Daughter's Marriage to J. J. L. Erving Postponed Indefinitely – Special to the New York Times – Newport, R.I., July 6 – Mrs. George Crocker of New York and San Francisco died at Shields Villa, at Ochre Point, the summer home of the family, today, after a prolonged illness.

Because of ill health, Mrs. Crocker sailed last February for France, where an operation was performed. About a month ago her condition became so serious that anxiety as to the outcome of her sickness was felt.

Mrs. Crocker arrived her last Thursday morning from New York. Upon her arrival from Europe, she occupied a suite on the fall River Line boat to avoid changes and to make the journey as easy as possible. She was then in a critical condition. She had been under the constant care of physicians and nurses since her arrival. She gradually became weaker, and within the past two days had been unconscious and steadily failing.

Mrs. Crocker's death will cause a change to the plans for the marriage of Miss Rutherford to J. J. Langdon Erving, which was to have taken place here and which would have been the leading social event of the season. The plans for the wedding will now be discontinued, and all arrangements for the future movements of Mr. Erving and Miss Rutherford will he held in abeyance. It is expected that Mrs. Herman Oelricha, who was an intimate friend of Mrs. Crocker, will recall her invitations for her early social entertainments.

The arrangements for the funeral have been completed. A brief service will be held at the Shields Villa tomorrow, the Rev. E. H. Porter, D. D. of Emmanuel Church officiating. The body will be taken tomorrow evening direct to California, where the interment will take place.

At the bedside when Mrs. Crocker died were her husband and three children, Miss Alice Rutherford, Mrs. Phillip Kearney, and Alexander H. Rutherford, Mr. Erving, Mrs. Crocker's sister and her husband were also present at the end.

Mrs. Crocker's maiden name was Emma Hanchett, and she was long famous as one of the beauties of her native state, California. She was first married to a Mr. Rutherford, who was the head of one of the departments of the Southern Pacific Express Company. By her first husband she had three children. For some years after Mr. Rutherford's death his widow did not remarry but finally, in 1894, she became the wife of George Crocker.

The marriage too place in this city, and soon after Mrs. Crocker began a brilliant social career. She had a cottage at Newport and a town house and entertained lavishly, the affairs at the Crocker house generally taking the form of musicals and large dinners. She moved in the same set with Mrs. Herman Oelricha and Mrs. O. H. P. Belmont.

Her last entertainment was given a year ago last winter when she opened her new town house at 1 East Sixty-fourth Street. This was a musicale at which Nordica sang. *(The New York Times, July 27, 1904)

Children: Alexander Hammond Rutherford, Jr. married Helen Dunnell Smyth; Alice Hanchett Rutherford [ http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=13899458 ] married J. Langdon Erving; Emma Wallace Rutherford married Phillip Kearney. *(Roots)