Retired 'Jet' photographer Maurice Sorrell and wife Beatrice celebrate 50th wedding anniversary

Jet, June 17, 1996

For their 50th wedding anniversary celebration, two retired Washington personalities decided to invite thetr friends to enjoy the get-together.

Former JET White House photographer Maurice Sorrell, a lively 82 years, and his radiant bride, Beatrice, a public health nurse for more than 20 years, invited "the gang" to a Sunday afternoon meal at B Smith's in Washington, D.C.'s Union Station.

"We want our friends to enjoy us here in this atmosphere," said Maurice, the first Black member of the White House Photographers Association who covered U. S. Presidents and Washington political life since the Eisenhower Era, "and not come together for a wake."

Special guests were his sister, Lillian Strange, from Hyannis, MA, and his wife's sister, Minnie Cleveland, from Columbus, OH.

The program was emceed by John Britton, a publicist with the University of the District of Columbia, and included many of the friends the couple has known for years in the nation's capital.

The couple met while she was attending Freedmen's Hospital nursing school. Said a guest, "Maurice got pictures of all the big shots during the past years. But when he celebrated the big 50, he invited only close friends."