Alice Sorensen's Story, Concluded

“And the pigs feet?” I asked, egging her on.

She made a sour face. “I was looking forward to a good meal the night Mike was born. I hadn’t eaten in almost two days, but when the meal came it was pigs feet and potato salad. That wasn’t my idea of a celebration meal. I had never eaten pigs feet before and I wasn’t going to start the day I gave birth—I still haven’t tried it and I doubt I ever will. The good thing was that in the 1940’s you stayed in the hospital a respectable ten days to recover from childbirth. A few days after I got home, Chris got back to Hawaii from Howland & Baker Islands. He was home for seven months, and then he left for Tarawa, Saipan, Makin Atoll, the Marianas, and the Gilbert Islands.”


Soon after Chris left, Alice’s mother returned from the mainland and Alice spent time with her parents in Manoa. She and her mother joined the American Red Cross Gray Ladies organization and volunteered time at Hickam Field working in the canteen, serving donuts to the airmen.

Alice said, “I volunteered throughout the war years. I even ventured into light opera. I tried out for a production of The Mikado and was cast in the chorus. Maurice Evans was the star—during the war he was a major in the Army stationed in Honolulu. He was attached to the Entertainment Section.”

Alice explained how she had become a part of the cast. “I took singing lessons from Peggy Hitchcock at Punahou. She was asked to play a lead role in The Mikado and when Major Evans asked if she knew any girls who she thought would be good for minor roles, she asked me to audition. My mother said she would take care of Mike for me, so I tried out and was given a role in the chorus. Most of the men in the cast were servicemen who had theatre experience, but there were some professionals from the community, and, of course, Maurice Evans. It was a wonderful experience. We toured all over the island. We started with a one month engagement at the University of Hawaii theatre which was convenient for me because my parents lived nearby on Hyde Street in Manoa. After that, we took the show on the road to different bases and camps. They had big buses that would pick us up. We went everywhere, even to camps in the boonies and we one night in February 1945 at the Maluhia.”

(Photo: Major Maurice Evans. Photo Credit: US Army)


Alice said that for the most part during the war her time revolved around being a mother and trying to keep life as normal as possible. She doesn’t have any particular memories of the day the war ended. “I wasn’t downtown celebrating in the streets, and I wasn’t part of any parade…I don’t remember the day, exactly. Chris was in Seattle, Washington—he was part of a staff that was planning for a land invasion of Japan. I do remember the date. It was August 31—Chris’s birthday. Victory in Europe Day was on May 8, my birthday.”

When Chris returned home after the war, he and Alice finally had their honeymoon. They went to Kiluea Military Camp on the Big Island—and took their three year old son Mike with them.

Chris and Alice built a home in Kahala where Alice still lives. When they bought their home, it was a perfectly-sized bungalow for their family. Over the years, it has been expanded several times and now accommodates three generations of the Sorensen family, including daughters Cathy and Susie, and Susie’s family.

The Sorensen home is comfortable and sprawling and decorated with loving memories collected over the years. On the piano there are several photos of Chris and Alice, of their children and grandchildren. Alice showed me a portrait of Chris. He looked to be about forty years old. “We were married just short of fifty-four years when Chris died,” she said.

Chris Sorensen died on January 30, 1996 from complications of Alzheimer’s disease.
For most of his life, Christian Sorensen was a professional artist. He carved monkey pod wood bowls, sculptures, and bas relief. On the living room wall in Alice’s home is Chris’s sculpture of St. Peter; on the piano is one of his carved lotus bowls. Most of Chris’s works are in private collections.


Alice walked me to her front door past one of Chris’s carvings. He had sculpted a bas relief of monstera leaves on a panel next to the door. We stopped at the ceramic urn next to the wooden gate in front of her house. The urn was filled with water lilies. “They’re my favorite flower,” she reminded me and I conjured a vision of Alice as a nineteen-year old bride, carrying a bouquet of cascading water lilies proudly escorted by her 2nd Lieutenant groom.