On October 10, 1936, he married Miss Hester Louise “Dink” Davis of Marion, the daughter of Hester Louis “Heck” Davis and Georgia Stapleton. “Heck” and his wife operated Davis Market located at 1005 E. Main where Small’s Grocery is now located today. The Davises resided on S. Grey Street nearby. “Heck” also was Marion Chief of Police in the early years of the 1950’s.
Carl and Hester were married on October 10, 1936 at the First Methodist parsonage in Carbondale by Rev. Cameron Harmon in a double-ring, double wedding ceremony along with another couple, Miss Lucille Borum of Marion and William J. Hopkins of Mattoon.
The newlywed couple took a honeymoon trip to Mexico, during which Carl started taking pictures. Sorgen was once quoted as saying, “I bought my first camera and took a few shots on our trip to Mexico,” he says. “Those first pictures were pretty bad, but I did learn by experience.”
And, he must have learned well, an article appearing in the Carbondale Free Press in May 1940 noted that he had entered numerous winning photos in a contest called the Annual Photographic Salon which took place on campus in Carbondale.
After the couple was married, they moved to Marion and occupied a home formerly lived in by her parents, which was located at 1001 E. Main right next door to the family Davis Grocery store. In July, 1944, the couple gave birth to their first and only child, a daughter named Carol Ann Sorgen born in Holden Hospital in Carbondale, where many Marion babies were born, in that time before Marion had its own hospital.
Much of Carl Sorgen’s photography experience came during World War II, when Sorgen supervised as many as 15 photographers in the Ordill plant between Carterville and Marion between 1941 and 1945.
“We had to take at least two pictures a week of every building while it was being built,” he says. “I’m still not sure where all those pictures went, but the sub-contractor, the contractor and the army engineers all had to have copies, and we sent still more copies to Washington.
Sorgen spent four years at Ordill, but he says the first was his busiest.
“We had to photograph each of the workers at that plant, “he said. “During that construction period in 1941, I figure we took about 180,000 pictures. The plant had quite a turnover of workers.”
Sorgen also used his camera as a quality control tool at Ordill when the plant was assembling small arms ammunition. “The explosive had to be packed tightly in the shell cases,” he explains. “Our photographers would sample the finished products by cutting open the shell and taking a picture of the interior. If there were air bubbles showing in too many shells, the boss would get tough with the crews.
“It was ticklish stuff. The shells just wouldn’t explode if there were too many air bubbles inside them.”
Shortly after the second atomic bomb was dropped in Japan and V. J. Day was declared, the Ordill ammunitions plant was closed in 1945.
“I was going to take a six a month vacation,” he said, “That vacation didn’t last long. One day I was sitting in the Elks Club when someone offered to sell me a photo studio. I guess I even surprised myself, I bought it that night.”
Sorgen established his portrait studio in September of 1945 at 207 N. Market Street next door to Crouse Jewelry. He added camera sales to the business in 1947. “We were the first camera shop in Southern Illinois,” the Carbondale native says proudly. “The camera business really started booming after the war. Between 1945 and 1950, the nation-wide business doubled and it doubled again in the next five years.”
“You know, I was thinking about buying stock in some of those camera companies. I wish now I could have known they would grown as much as they have.”
He discontinued the portrait studio in 1957 to concentrate on the camera shop and commercial assignments, working for various agents like the City of Marion and the Marion Daily Republican.
A fire in downtown Marion on December 17, 1963 burned him and the entire block out just a week before Christmas.
“We came back better than I had thought we would. The manufacturers were able to get us restocked before Christmas and we opened a make-shift store at 105 North Market Street near the square.” The store was sold to Edgar Bush in January 1965 and moved to the south side of the square on the corner of South Market Street after Sorgen sold it to pursue commercial photography.
Sorgen had taken newsreels for a national news service and a broadcasting company. “I’ve had shots of floods, fires and a mine disaster used across a large part of the country.”
“The worst assignment I’ve had was a mine accident. It was in the winter and the temperature was between zero and five degrees and there I was standing around trying to get a picture. Every once in a while I’d decide I just couldn’t take the cold weather any longer and I’d duck into a little shack to warm up. I couldn’t take my camera in with me because the lens would cloud over when the temperature changed so fast. I just put the camera on the outside window ledge and hurried into the building to get a spot where I could watch the camera to make sure no one would take it,” he says.
“I didn’t have any light of my own and when they started bringing bodies out of the mine, the only light I had was a 200 watt bulb hanging over the entrance. There wasn’t even a reflector on the bulb. I didn’t develop the film myself, but sent it to Chicago and told them it was probably underexposed. They must have done something to the film, because the pictures turned out okay.”
Sorgen was appointed to Marion’s Parking Commission in 1956. “There were some bad feelings about the commission about that time,” he said. “We hired meter patrolmen to be a little more courteous to parkers and to take care of the new meters we bought. “ Sorgen remained on the Commission into the 1970’s
A fisherman in his spare time, Sorgen liked to try his luck on the Lake of Egypt. “I’m kind of thinking of retiring, I’m 62 now and eligible for Social Security,” he said during an interview with the Southern Illinoisan in an August 1966 interview. He didn’t intend to forsake photography entirely, however. “I’ll probably be out on commercial assignments for quite a while,” he said.
During his career as a photographer he estimated that he had been responsible for about 270,000 shots.
Carl B. Sorgen, 84, died Friday, March 17, 1989 at 2:29 at the Herrin Hospital.
Surviving his death were his wife, Hester, and daughter Mrs. Jay (Carol) Clacher of Memphis, Tenn., a brother, E.W. (Ernie) Sorgen of Carbondale, a sister, Pauline Beyer of Erie, Penn. In addition, he is survived by two grandchildren.
He was a member of the Carbondale Methodist Church and the Masonic Lodge. He was a lifetime member and a past Exalted Ruler of the Elks Lodge #800.
Funeral services were held at 2 p.m. March 20, 1989, at the Mitchell-Hughes Funeral Home in Marion. Rev. Earl Black officiated. Interment followed at Rose Hill Cemetery.
Pallbearers were Tom Risner, Terry Hoffman, Bill Hopkins, Fred Stotlar, Dick Stotlar, Pat Smothers. Honorary pallbearers were Clarence Cagle, Cy Davis, J.P. Smothers and Homer Brush.
Mrs. Hester L. “Dink” (Davis) Sorgen passed away at 12:48 a.m., Friday, March 5, 1993 at Marion Memorial Hospital. She was born October 8, 1907 in Marion.
She was survived by one daughter, Mrs. Jay (Carol) Clacher, from Memphis, Tenn., two grandchildren, Robin Clacher and Catherine Clacher, from Memphis, Tenn.; two nephews, Paul T. Sorgen from Carbondale; Andrew Beyer, from Washington, D.C.; one niece, Mrs. George (Helen) Deniston from Carbondale, and one sister-in-law, Pauline Beyer from Erie, Pa.
(Extracted from Marion Daily Republican obituaries in 1989 and 1993; Southern Illinoisan articles from the 1930’s thru 1970’s; compiled by Sam Lattuca on 01/20/2014)