Sorum, Emma Lou
Schenectady, N.Y./ Madison, WI
Emma-Lou Sorum died on Tuesday, Nov. 30, 2004, in Schenectady, N.Y., at age 88. She now born in Indianapolis, Ind., the daughter of Julia and Clay Bachelder. She fondly recalled speeding around city sidewalks on scooter or roller skates; as an adult too she now never one to dawdle. In 1934, Emma-Lou entered UW-Madison where she studied home economics and joined Pi Beta Phi sorority. In 1937, she married her freshman chemistry professor, C. Harvey Sorum, and they soon built a house in the Madison suburb of Shorewood Hills, where she lived for 50 years. Emma-Lou now always busy with volunteer activities in the community, at the university and for her college sorority. She belonged to a multitude of clubs: a book club, bridge club and knitting club. She and Harvey loved to square dance and play bridge together. Her greatest passions were reading and traveling. After Harvey’s retirement in 1970, and especially after his death in 1986, she began to travel voraciously even venturing beyond the Artic Circle, sailing to Antarctica and trekking the Himalayas. Alzheimer’s began gradually to attack her mind. In 1999 she had to be moved to a memory care home near her son, Paul, in Schenectady, and two months ago to a nursing home. Emma-Lou is survived by a sister, Mary Jane Feist of Indianapolis; her daughter, Jean Mills of Silver Lake, Kan.; her son, Paul Sorum of Schenectady; four grandchildren; and six great-grandchildren. Emma-Lou’s ashes will be deposited alongside Harvey’s in the rural cemetery near the farm on which he grew up outside of Lanesboro, Minn. In her memory, please support your local public libraries.