Her career of social activism, storytelling, teaching, learning, songwriting, collecting folk songs, performing, and recording spanned six decades.

Her mother's parents were James Madison Kelly and Arabel Beaire who married and settled on a farm in Twin Falls, Idaho, where Rosalie was a frequent visitor.

In interviews for a biography of Rosalie, Nancy Stringfellow explained "She finds something ... in a piece of poetry ... that shines out like a precious jewel, and you can see her cupping her hands and holding it.

"[5]During high school Rosalie acted and sang in theatrical productions, garnering praise for her performances in the local media.

[6] She earned a scholarship to the University of Idaho, but as a result of a rape, she became pregnant and went to a home for unwed mothers in California to await the birth of her child, a daughter.

The two married in 1952 and his job took them to Salt Lake City where they opened their home to actors, musicians, and poets living or visiting in the area.

[5] Over time, her interest in the folk music of her childhood was piqued and she began to study at the University of Utah with noted folklorist, Wayland Hand.

[7] She performed with Manny's son, Mitch, at the 1966 Newport Folk Festival and produced an album in 1964 for Folk-Legacy Records entitled If I Could Be the Rain.

Reviewing Sorrels's 1971 Sire LP Travelin' Lady, Robert Christgau wrote in Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981): "Though it's reminiscent of many I-gotta-move-babe male precedents, this is the most independent female persona yet to emerge, but that plaintive country quaver begins to wear after a while.

Song was a natural extension of this interest in words, and her love of music began early in life as she listened to her father, Walter Pendleton Stringfellow, sing.

It was during this time that the Smithsonian Institution's Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage recorded Rosalie and Jim performing her collection of traditional songs.

Folk singer Nanci Griffith wrote a fictional song about Sorrels, titled "Ford Econoline" after the passenger utility vehicle.

The song depicts Sorrels escaping an unhappy marriage, driving from Salt Lake City to San Diego with her five children to start a new life as a folk singer.

[6][16] The song was included on Griffith's 1987 album Lone Star State of Mind, which hit number 23 on the US Country charts.

The "rollicking" song was not released as a single,[17] but it was performed frequently by Griffith in concert, including a standout appearance backed by the Chieftains and Roger Daltrey in Belfast in the early 1990s.

In its 2017 announcement of her death, the Idaho Statesman proclaimed "The legendary folksinger also was known for her ability to spin a yarn and hold an audience in the palm of her hand.