Myrtle Frances Sorrell

Myrtle Frances Gaines was born on August 13, 1938, in Alamosa, Colorado, to Herbert and Anna Marie Gaines, and she died on May 17, 2025. Myrtle was the youngest of twelve children. Her family moved to Myrtle, Missouri when she was a young girl and the family started attending the Church of God in Myrtle in 1955, when she was seventeen years old. Myrtle accepted salvation and she followed the Lord for the rest of her life. She said, "The greatest miracle in my life is when the Lord saved my sin sick soul."
Soon after, she met Thomas Sorrell, and they were married on March 16, 1957.
Tommy and Myrtle made their home in Missouri and had three children there: Thomas Dwane, Marie June, and Martha Lou. In the spring of 1965 they moved to Ponchatoula, Louisiana, where their youngest, Dale Ray, was born. During their time in Louisiana, Myrtle took a job at the Hammond State School working with handicapped children. The family moved back to Missouri in 1972, purchasing and remodeling a home in Myrtle, and she worked as a Certified Nursing Assistant at a nursing home in Thayer. Myrtle always wanted to be a nurse, and she had a natural and gentle way of caring for those in need. Her mother had been the community's midwife so perhaps she learned these skills early.
The family moved to Thayer sometime around 1976; she trained as Emergency Medical Technician and began working as an EMT on the Thayer ambulance. Before long Tommy also took the EMT training and they worked together as a team at a hospital in Salem, Arkansas. In 1987 she had a severe fall on the job, ending her career at the hospital. She used her training with her family though, always available to lend knowledgeable care when her children and grandchildren needed her.
Myrtle Sorrell was loved and admired by her family, and she will be greatly missed. She was preceded in death by her son Dwane, and three grandchildren: Vicky Sorrell, Rodney Sorrell, and Paige Sorrell. She is survived by her husband Thomas, daughter in law Connie Sorrell, daughter Marie Benson and husband Earl, daughter Martha Zacharias and husband Ron, son Dale Sorrell and wife Lisa, and many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.