A funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, Jan. 7 at Creswell Presbyterian Church for Stanley Sorenson of Creswell, who died Jan. 2, 2010, of age-related causes. He was 86.

He was born April 4, 1923, in Arlington, South Dakota, to N. Samuel and Johannah Sorenson. He married Eleanor Mae Roberts on Dec. 24, 1942, in Eugene. She died Feb. 7, 2009.

He attended school through the seventh grade in South Dakota, when his family moved from South Dakota to Oregon. He was 15.

When he was in the fifth grade, he was sent home from school for misbehaving. He returned to school, riding in his goat-drawn cart, and proceeded to circle the school whooping and hollering.

Unfortunately, he had forgotten that his teacher boarded with his family, and when she returned home that evening, he received appropriate discipline.

As an adult, he made wooden items such as furniture for his daughters, a rocking cradle for his dog Molly, as well as Adirondack chairs, picnic tables, planter boxes in the shape of goats and carts, squirrel feeders and numerous birdhouses, which he gave away or sold.

His family commented that almost every family in Creswell must own one of his birdhouses.

He drove long haul trucks for Nick Carter of Eugene during the early 1960s. In 1966, he and his family moved to Creswell, where he drove for Willamette Poultry. He retired from Fircrest Farms in 1985.

He loved automobiles and, as a young man, purchased a new car almost every year. His father made him take his first car in Oregon, a Model T Ford, back, because he didn't yet have a drivers' license. Most of all, he loved his family and friends. His family described him as a man of faith.

He is survived by: a daughter, Judi Dishner of Junction City; three grandchildren, Kelli Latham and Eric Daquilanto, both of Cottage Grove and Carol Proulx of Creswell; and six great-grandchildren.

A daughter, Caren Daquilanto, died in 2006, and a granddaughter, Traci Hartford, died in 2004.

Following his funeral service, he will be buried in Creswell Pioneer Cemetery. England's Creswell Memorial Chapel is in charge of arrangements.