Al C. Rutland Jr., a former Hopkinsville mayor and one of Western Kentucky’s best known purveyors of old-style pit barbecue, died Monday in Nashville, Tennessee. He was 81.
Rutland was elected to Hopkinsville City Council as a Democrat in the late 1960s and was appointed mayor in 1975 to fill the unexpired term of George L. Atkins, who had been elected state auditor. After serving out Atkins’ term, Rutland then ran for a full term and served another four years as mayor.
Before going into politics, he was a math teacher at Christian County High School for eight years, and he was in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1963 to 1969.
But the barbecue business that his father started in 1948 was his main livelihood.
“There’s no telling how much barbecue he had served,” said longtime friend Jim Gardner, who was one of Rutland’s math students.
Many state politicians made their way to the Rutland barbecue pit off Vine Street. Gardner said at least three governors — “Ned” Breathitt, John Y. Brown and Brereton T. Jones — were visitors.
He once served roughly 2,500 people for a Breathitt gathering in Hopkinsville, and his biggest feed was for an estimated 5,000 people at an industrial event in Paducah, said Gardner.
Rutland was known as a storyteller and had an impressive memory of local political figures and events, said Gardner. Decades after he left office, he could recall city budget numbers from the 1970s and compare them to current revenue and spending.
“There is a world of knowledge that is gone with him,” Gardner said.
A native of Hopkinsville, Rutland was born Nov. 20, 1940, the son of Al C. Sr. and Garvia Rutland. He earned a bachelor’s degree at Murray State University. He was a member of First Presbyterian Church and the Hopkinsville Kiwanis Club.
Surviving Rutland are his wife of 56 years, Jane Carroll Yancey Rutland, his daughter, Elizabeth Newman, and his son, Yancey Rutland, who runs the family’s barbecue operation. It is among the oldest food businesses in Hopkinsville, second only to Ferrell’s.
The funeral will be at noon Thursday, Dec. 30, at Hughart, Beard & Giles Funeral Home. Visitation will be from 10 a.m. until the funeral hour. Burial will be in Riverside Cemetery. (Here is a link to the funeral home’s announcement.)
Jennifer P. Brown is co-founder, publisher and editor of Hoptown Chronicle. You can reach her at editor@hoptownchronicle.org. She spent 30 years as a reporter and editor at the Kentucky New Era. She is a co-chair of the national advisory board to the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, governing board president for the Kentucky Historical Society, and co-founder of the Kentucky Open Government Coalition.
