Beth Sorrell

Beth Louise Drake Sorrell passed away peacefully Saturday evening, June 25 in Cary, NC, where she had been living to be close to her sister Nancy Savage, since the death of her husband in 2010. Born April 19, 1921 in Washington D.C., she was the daughter of Linn C. Drake and Grace Knuppenberg. After losing her mother to cancer at a young age, Beth's father remarried, and gifted his three young daughters - Sally, Nancy and Lois - with the best big sister any little sister could ever want. All preceded her in death except Nancy.
Her education began in a one-room schoolhouse in D.C. and culminated in a Master's Degree from Columbia University in New York. After graduating early from high school, she attended American University and graduated with honors. Beginning in 1943, she worked in the Intelligence Division of the Pentagon. During her 13 years there, she was responsible for press intelligence and analyzing organizations, publications and individuals active in the 'Native Fascist field' in the US. She also tracked the movements of high level Nazi officials and reported on their whereabouts. Ever the patriot, Beth resisted her family's best attempts to hear her stories and kept the Pentagon's secrets until the end of her life. After leaving the Pentagon, she received a Master's from Columbia University and began a long career of counseling at Washington and Lee High School in Arlington. She married Howard Sorrell at 49, and from then on, they were inseparable. The looks they exchanged, their gestures, and words of endearment spoke of a deep and abiding love that brought out the best in them and all who knew them. Beth had a keen interest in helping young people find their way forward - a gift which she extended to the youth in Sunday School at Calvary Baptist Church in Washington D.C., to her sisters, and to her many nieces and nephews. In her quiet, warm and gracious manner, she set an example we were eager to imitate. Though it is likely we did disappoint occasionally, we were never made aware of it. While not without opinions, in none did we hear negative judgments about others' motivations or choices. She unfailingly made lemonade with any lemon in her path. There was a purity of her spirit which never seemed of this world, and we are confident she is the closest thing to an angel we will know in our lifetimes.
We will miss our visits, and the wonder of how a person could possess so many blue things, and the tranquility of the space that a person who loved the color provided us. We will miss her chuckle and conspiratory wink. We will miss her patient and loving presence, and the exemplary manner in which she lived out her time here with us. The family will receive friends on Friday, July 1 from 12:30 to 1:30 pm at Riderwood Village Chapel, 3110 Gracefield Road, Silver Spring, MD with a service to begin at 1:30 pm. Interment Cedar Hill Cemetery, Suitland MD.

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