Norah O'Leary was born on January 20, 1909, the eldest daughter of Norbert and Frances "Fanny" O'Leary. The O'Leary family, which eventually included daughters Ruth and Elizabeth (Betty) and a son John, lived in Williston, North Dakota from 1921 until 1925. In 1925 they moved to Worthington, Minnesota where Norbert O'Leary took a job as a district court reporter. Norah entered Worthington high school as a sophomore at the beginning of the 1925-1926 school year and graduated in the spring of 1928. In high school she became friends with Milton Sorem, who was a year or two older. In the fall of 1928 Norah entered Hamline University in St. Paul and graduated four years later. All through college Norah O'Leary and Milton Sorem kept in touch and they married in early June of 1932.
A daughter, Gretchen, and a son, Anthony, joined the family in the next few years as Milton worked his way through medical school at the University of Minnesota. He graduated in 1939 and set up a family practice in St. Paul. Despite having two young children, Milton Sorem, and the U.S. government, felt his medical skills were needed more in the Pacific theater for three long years during World War II. After the war, Milton Sorem continued his medical practice in St. Paul, eventually becoming chief of staff at St. Luke's Hospital. Daughters Anita and Alana were born before the Sorems' marriage eventually dissolved. While Norah O'Leary Sorem never remarried or changed back to her birth name, Milton Sorem remarried and helped raise four additional children with his second wife, Evelyn. Milton Sorem died in St. Paul on March 4, 1987, about six months shy of his 80th birthday, and Norah O'Leary Sorem died in Minneapolis on January 24, 1989, shortly after reaching her 80th birthday.
From the guide to the Norah Sorem papers., 1911-1956., (Minnesota Historical Society)
