Great Uncle John Sorrells
By Costa Rica Bart
The Man We Wish We Knew
Spoken Intro:
This is a story about my great uncle, John…
and some of the things he accomplished along his journey through life.
A man born in the late 1800s…
whose life carried him from Arkansas roots
to moments that made national attention…
and stories that still live on through family today.
Verse 1
In 1896 John was born
In a house in Pine Bluff, Arkansas
I hear he had a warm personality
Something we wish we could have seen
He played college football
At Washington and Lee
When he had to leave
Something big had begun
That’s when the USA entered World War One
As a lieutenant, he spent time
Training soldiers at Camp Pike
Verse 2
And in 1927 he got national attention
He had a cameraman
Taking shots of the Mississippi River Flood from a plane
He even had newspapers flown
To people trapped in that same flood
The president of Memphis Publishing
Said he believed in equal pay
For all workers back in that day
Spoken Bridge
Some lives are measured in years…
but others are measured in impact.
And even though time moved on,
his name stayed in the stories passed down
through family who never had the chance
to meet him face to face.
Still… he’s remembered.
Still spoken of with respect.
Final Verse
Then John passed away
His funeral in Pine Bluff attended
by family, friends,
and people he worked with along the way
Graceland Cemetery
Five truckloads of flowers
covered his grave
where he rests today
Great-nephews holding onto stories
of the great uncle they never knew
Cheers to the man
we still wish we knew
The story of a man we wish we knew
