File:Sonny and Louise Cannon Photo.jpg

Sonny and Louise Cannon on Easter Sunday, 1943. They were a power couple in Brunswick long before the term got popularized. Chief of the Brunswick Volunteer Fire Company for 37 years, Sonny was much more than that. He was an impresario with a great sound system, who lured big-name acts to play dances at the Fire Hall that he was the moving force in building. He also operated the movie theater across the street and was a political kingmaker.

Louise was often by his side, helping to organize dances, sew stage props by hand, fundraise and orchestrate and cook dinners at the fire hall.

Chris Weitzel Louise was a dear lady. She always had projects going and kept an eye on all us neighborhood kids.\

Doris Kelley Barker Franklin Delano Roosevelt was on a B&O train going to Chicago, Ill, when it stopped in Brunswick. Sonny Cannon had started his collection and held his microphone (only one in Brunswick) and let the President speak from it to the crowd near the Westbound Station. Sonny Cannon and his volunteer fire guys would use all of his electronics over the year to do all of it at the York, PA fair many years. How magnificent is that? He could have been a Director in Hollywood and she was the dearest lady ever and loved the United Methodist Church. My Uncle Roy Rice’s brother was Walter Rice who lived all the time at the Fire Hall on N. Delaware Avenue and then the really big one across from the movie house.

(Photo courtesy of Brunswick Volunteer Fire Department)