(January 4, 2003)
Funeral services will be conducted at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8 at St. John's Lutheran Church in Lovell for long-time Deaver resident, Verla Luella Sorenson, 71, who died Saturday, Jan. 4 at the Powell Hospital after a year-long battle with cancer.
She was born Dec. 24, 1931, in Artesian, S.D., the second child of Marvin and Agnes Twombley. She lived most of her childhood in the Black Hills of South Dakota. She moved to Deaver with her husband and children in 1965 where she resided ever since.
After graduating from Black Hills State College in 1952, she taught school in a country schoolhouse near Newell, S.D., for one year before she married her lifelong partner, LaMoine Sorenson, and began a family. She then dedicated her life to her husband and family.
She was active in St. John's Lutheran Church and the communities in which she lived. She shared her time between three homes, one in Glades Hidden Valley in California and the others in Deaver and at the Sorenson Ranch in the Pryor Mountains. She hosted and entertained many friends and family at her homes and enjoyed the company of many. All felt welcome in her home.
She and husband LaMoine enjoyed traveling and seeing the world in their retirement. Their travels took her to most of the United States, Mexico and parts of Europe.
Survivors include her husband LaMoine of Deaver; her six children and their families, Craig and Vicki Sorenson of Deaver, Mark and Ramona Sorenson of Deaver, Ronda Peer of Deaver, Jhan and Becky Sorenson of Missoula, Mont., Steve and Tara Sorenson of Cody and David and Lea Sorenson of Deaver; 17 grandchildren, six great-grandchildren; three sisters, Dona Stephens of St. Onge, S.D., Ruth Crawford of Mariposa, Calif., and Lois Kline of Colorado Springs, Colo.; and many nieces and nephews.
She was preceded in death by her parents and a sister, Marva.
Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Haskell Funeral Home. Burial will be in the Deaver Cemetery. Memorials may be made to the Powell Valley Hospice.