Dennis Sorensen

Dennis J. Sorensen, 77, died on February 11 at Carle BroMenn Medical Center in Normal, IL, thus ending a decades-long battle with type 1 diabetes and multiple heart attacks.

Cremation rites have been accorded. A Celebration of Life will be on Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 3p.m. at Lakeside Country Club, 1201 E. Croxton Ave., Bloomington, IL. Please join us to share memories and stories of what he called his "storybook life."

Dennis was born in 1944, in Milwaukee, WI, to Harold and Victoria Sorensen.

He married his high school sweetheart, Ellyn Steinbach, Aug. 8, 1964, in Milwaukee. She survives, along with their three sons, Matt (Lisa), Chad (Apsara) and Jason (Melissa), all of Bloomington. Also surviving are ten grandchildren and four great-grandchildren.

A graduate of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, he began his career as a writer for United Press International and the Associated Press. From 1964 to 1970 his assignments included covering the NFL champion Green Bay Packers and the Milwaukee Bucks.

He was promoted to the Chicago bureau of the Associated Press in 1970 as the broadcast director for the Midwest region. He was voted the AP's best broadcast writer in 1973 by the national Radio and Television News Directors Association.

In 1974 he became a television writer-producer at State Farm's newly formed Creative Services Department in Bloomington. In 1980 he became head of the Agency Communications Division - a job he held until his retirement in 2004.
An avid golfer, he was a long-time member of Lakeside Country Club and the McLean County senior golf association. He also belonged to the Moose Lodge 745.

Dennis and Ellyn enjoyed world travel, making dozens of trips to Europe and spending hundreds of nights on cruises. They spent part of many winters in Mexico.

In his younger years, he enjoyed being a singer-songwriter. Other activities included playing cards with friends, reading and working crossword and sudoku puzzles.

His favorite times were those he spent with his family, who he said provided him a "storybook life."

Memorials in honor of Dennis may be made to the American Diabetes Association, online (see below) or by mail to American Diabetes Association, PO Box 7223, Merrifield, VA 22116-7023