Jubilee Choir rings down the final curtain

NEWS-SUN

The Jubilee Choir rang down the final curtain Thursday at Taylor Memorial Baptist Church after more than 1,300 rehearsals and countless performances at home and on the road.

Janice Warford began the choir 25 years ago after retiring from a career teaching voice lessons at New Mexico Junior College. She said Tuesday that at 85 years of age, she decided that it was time to retire.

“We weren’t getting any new members and so many people had died or moved away that we were getting smaller and smaller. We lost three sopranos last year and another is ill and we had such a small number of men, it was just the right time for us to give it up,” Warford said.

From the time the choir began, the membership requirement was that a person be at least 60 years old to join, although it is likely some persons approaching their 60th birthday came a “little early.” In May, when the choir presented its 25th anniversary concert, members ranged in age from 60 to 90 years.

The choir was an important ecumenical venture as members came from every community in Lea County and from several different Christian denominations.

Ray Smith, who was a member of the choir for most of the years it existed, was regretful about losing the choir.

“But I think it’s probably time. We’ve been losing members and not replacing them. I won’t have any trouble finding a way to fill in the time that we used to rehearse because I have other responsibilities at the church,” Smith said. “Most of the choir members are in their eighties and this is just one of the adjustments you have to make as you get older.”

Smith praised Warford for her work with the choir.

“Janice has done a remarkable job with it. She picked great music and she has wonderful organizational skills. But we all get to a place where we need to do something else, some of us earlier and some of us later. We’ve only got about four men left and so it really is a women’s choir now,” Smith said.

Bruce Hardison echoed Smith’s praise for Warford.

“She really did a great job,” Hardison said. “I enjoyed all she did and enjoyed getting together with the other choir members. But we’re all getting older and it’s time for us to quit.”

Diana Donoho, who was a member of the choir for almost 11 years, said joining the choir was one of the things on her bucket list.

“I thoroughly enjoyed it. I’m really going to miss it. But sometimes things just come to the end of their time,” she said. “I don’t know what I’ll do without it. I’ll just wait to see what the Lord has for me.”

Warford doesn’t know what she’ll do without the choir, either.

“But after 25 years, with so many getting on in years, it’s time to quit,” she said. “It’s hard to give up something that you’ve had so long. We turned in our music Thursday, but not before everyone had a chance to pick their favorite song and we sang our hearts out before we went home.”

Dorothy N. Fowler can be reached at education@hobbsnews.com.