Longtime Centralia choir director to retire after 'Sing Big Finale'

May 4-Longtime Centralia choir director Lauri Johnson will kick off her retirement with a final concert next month - by gathering singers from her 38 years in music education.

The "Sing Big Finale" is scheduled for 7 p.m., June 10, at Centralia High School. So far, over 100 former students have signed up to participate, and the list is growing.

The name of the concert is a tribute to her custom "Sing Big" license plate.

Johnson has spent the last 25 years teaching choir at both Centralia High School and Centralia Middle School. The Tacoma native and Eastern Washington University graduate came to Centralia after 13 years teaching in Federal Way.

Johnson said retirement had been in the back of her mind earlier this school year, but she didn't want to get ahead of herself - both her high school and middle school choirs had recently auditioned to perform the national anthem at an upcoming Seattle Mariners game.

Johnson considered the game a long shot, until both choirs were accepted. The good news came with a caveat; the organizers wanted her to choose one choir to perform.

"And so I said, well, heck with it, we're just taking everybody," Johnson said.

The combined choir - which will perform at the May 31 Mariners game against the Arizona Diamondbacks - consists of about 75 kids, Johnson said.

Now that the Mariners game had become a reality, Johnson again considered retiring. Her husband asked if she'd like to have a gathering of all her past students.

"And I said, 'Oh my gosh, I really need to honor them. I need them to be able to sing one more last time,'" Johnson said. "And that's where this all came from is just an epiphany that I really needed to talk to my kids one more time and then, you know, wouldn't it be fun to have a gathering? And oh, what if we sang a song together?"

The idea grew quickly. Four former students, led by Myriah Sims, agreed to chair the event.

Johnson said she's been conducting the rehearsals online. Her choir includes former students and their own children who were also students. Longtime accompanist Thomas Kretz will also join the performance.

"I don't know if I have sopranos still. I don't know if I have altos. I don't know if I have basses or tenors. I don't know and I don't really care. I just want to get together with them one last time," Johnson said.

The choir director's journey to Centralia began 25 years ago. After 13 productive years in Federal Way, Johnson had started to ask herself, now what?

"And so I really wanted to teach at the high school level," Johnson said. "I had been teaching at the middle school level and I love middle school, don't get me wrong, but my kids were singing high school music at the middle school level, and so I thought, why not? Let's try it."

Johnson also wanted the opportunity to work with more mature voices, including bass singers.

One day, Johnson's sister, a Centralia resident, told her about an opening at Centralia High School. Hesitant at first, Johnson wanted to know how many high schools were in Centralia.

"And she laughed, and she said, 'Well, there's one, but it's okay that there's just one," Johnson said.

Johnson interviewed in the spring of 2001.

"I remember saying this about four times, 'If you don't want a program, please don't hire me because I am not one to sit idle and just do nothing,'" Johnson said. "I mean, I'm a worker bee and I'm spicy and I just go 100 miles a minute. That's just who I am."

While explaining why she'd want to work in Lewis County - which included her love for hunting and fishing - Johnson looked out the window and saw a kid walking a sheep.

"And I said that's just such a beautiful thing. It's such a wonderful, wholesome thing to be able to think that this is what Lewis County is, and it's kind of going back in time."

Upon signing her contract, Johnson - who later served as president of the local teacher's association - said she knew Centralia was going to be her place.

"I just loved being here, and this has just been, you know, who I am," Johnson said.

Johnson also made sure to keep former longtime choir director Marilyn Turner an integral part of the program, namely through private voice lessons.

"I knew that she was part of the fabric of the school district, so I wanted to keep her part of it, and it worked," Johnson said.

Among many memories, Johnson described shy kids who couldn't say "here" during roll call but went on to sing solos at their graduation day.

"So, it's just full circle," Johnson said. "And then to see these kids coming back. That's really when you see your contributions to your community and the love of your family, of your extended family. That's what they are."

Amy Johnstone, a 2016 Centralia High School graduate who participated in both the middle school and high school choirs, said Johnson changed people's lives.

"She may be retiring, but what she's built doesn't just go away," Johnstone said. "You can fill a position but you can't replace the kind of legacy she created."

Johnson received dozens of similar thanks and well wishes after first announcing the final concert idea on Facebook last month.

Now, with the school year soon coming to a close, Johnson said she is thinking in terms of projects, not days. After all, the retiring choir director still has multiple end-of-year performances, the Mariners game and, of course, the "Sing Big Finale."

"I'm not done until the last note is sung and my kids feel like they can, you know, have this culminating event and say their goodbyes," Johnson said.

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