Obituary for Howard Rudolph “Rudy” Murphy

Howard Rudolph “Rudy” Murphy, 84, of Vinton, Virginia went home to glory on Friday, January 20, 2023 surrounded by his family.

Born April 30, 1938 in a log cabin in the foothills of Pulaski, Virginia.  He attended Pulaski High School where he met and married his childhood sweetheart, Janie Anderson Murphy to whom he was married for 61 years.

Rudy is survived by his two younger siblings, Thomas Murphy (Nancy) and Connie Thornton (Allen); sister-in-law, Rita Anderson White; his four children, Reatha Sanburn and her husband Wayne (their two children and two grandchildren), Jeff Murphy and his wife, Carol (their three sons and eleven grandchildren), Randy Murphy and his wife, Robin (their two children and three grandchildren), and Teri Richardson (and her three children); and countless other family and friends.

His lifelong ambition was to be the man spoken of in Ezekiel 22:30 :   “And I sought for a man among them that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap…To the ones that knew and loved him, he was that man.”

Services will be private.