About Us | YoungatHeartLC

About the Young at Heart Chorus

The mission of the Young at Heart Chorus is:

First - to entertain residents of assisted living and nursing homes and senior centers in the Las Cruces area with music.

Second - to provide an opportunity for people in the Las Cruces area to belong to a choral group, to sing, and to enjoy music and friendship together.

We practice two or three times a month and generally sing at four facilities each month. Music and themes change monthly, selected from our large library of old songs that are favorites of the audience and the chorus. Programs are enhanced by varying the themes and by highlighting the talents of individual members with vocal solos or duets, group harmony, and instrumental accompaniment as part of our group’s performance.

Chorus History

Young at Heart Chorus has been in continuous operation since 1972, over 44 years! This miracle is a tribute to all the seniors who believed that our chorus is a valuable public service, and stuck with it through the years. We are grateful to Harold Mack and his wife, Audrey, who started the chorus in June of 1972. Harold was director and Audrey was the pianist. The group practiced at the old senior center at the corner of Nevada and Chaparral, and their first performance was for Halloween 1972 with four singers. Harold was a basketball coach in Indiana when he was younger, and was inducted into the Valparaiso University’s athletic hall of fame as a member of the 1944-45 “World’s Tallest Basketball Team”. He is listed on the chorus roster as late as 1994, making 22 years of dedication. He was a resident at the Aristocrat when he died in 2013 at the age of 86.

The facts we have about the early years come mostly from Dr. John Early, chairman of the chorus for many years. He and his wife, Martha, took care of details like scheduling and preparing the music. Martha typed each month’s song list (on a manual typewriter) and started saving them in 1992, which gives us as an original source, the large blue binder known as “Chorus History”, which contains over 200 programs plus other information. The first thing you notice looking at the oldest programs: we are still singing the same songs! We’ve added many more old favorites, but almost all the songs from 1992 are found in the programs we do today. We also have many, but not all of the chorus rosters through the years.

John recorded a few facts about the Macks in 1995, and also about the chorus at that time. In 1995 we were known as the Munson Senior Chorus, we had 23 members, and were singing at three nursing homes and the Munson center on a regular basis, with extra performances as requested. This is the same schedule we use to this day, although the name of the chorus and the places we go have changed. Places where we’ve performed include Memorial Hospital, Munson Center, Casa del Sol, Mountain Shadows, Las Cruces Nursing, and others.\

John Early reported in 1992 that the chorus was active in the Senior Olympics Talent Show, which is also still true. Joanie, our pianist, won a blue ribbon last year with her famous “Down Yonder” rendition, and Joy, our rhythm queen, won a blue ribbon for “You Belong to Me”.

Now we skip forward to December, 1999. John Early lived across the street from me, and knowing I played the piano, asked me if I would try helping out because their current pianist, Carolyn Darr, wanted to quit because of her age and eyesight. After a rocky start, not having really practiced since I was 17, things improved and I was the pianist for the chorus until we were lucky enough to entice Joanie to play for us in 2013. One of our true blessings is her dedication to Young at Heart.

For a few years, starting in 1996, a lady named Elnora Altman was directing the chorus. Not long after I joined in 1999, she got married and moved away. The members chose Elgin Bryce, a retired minister, to lead the group. He loved country music and hymns. While Elgin was director, we changed how the music is handled by putting the music sheets into a three-ring binder. Before that, they were in a loose leaf folder and many members couldn’t keep the sequence straight. Big improvement!

Also, during his tenure, the powers that be at Munson Center asked us to move our music (two large file cabinets) out of the center. They went into my spare bedroom. That gave me a close connection to our music source, which continues to this day. George houses the folders for individual songs, (now 4 large file cabinets), but I have all the music books from which we copy, numbering 84, as well as individual master copies of all the songs in our list, numbering somewhere around 1000, if you count the songs saved from featured performers and those we may someday try as a new song. (We have a database that a former member volunteered to make of all the songs in those 80+ books, which has 6641 lines. We’re rich!)

Sadly, Elgin had a heart condition that took him from us after a few years. In 2002, the chorus chose Joe L. Otero as our leader, with Alice Schwebke as his assistant. I was also helping behind the scenes as well as playing the piano. He and Alice continued until Joe L. had a stroke, and could no longer help us. The records are unclear when that happened, but it was after 2009. Neither Elgin nor Joe L. had the ability to read music. Nonetheless, a strong sense of rhythm and years of experience singing these songs carried them through.

Another improvement was made at some point around this time. We decided to provide sheets for the chorus with only lyrics if requested. At our age, someone usually needs the larger print, and the music only makes sense if you can read it. Reading music has never been a requirement for participation in the chorus.

From 2002 to 2006 we were known as “Las Cruces Senior Chorus.” In 2006 we wanted to switch it up a bit. It only took a few minutes to come up with “Young at Heart”. This was before the movie of the same name came out!

Now I’d like to make note of special members and happenings through the years. Please note there is not enough room to thank everyone! Elvie Jokenin was on the oldest roster we have – 1991, and continued with the chorus as our favorite soloist until 2007. She sang a solo two days before her death, just before her 90th birthday.

Our longest serving active member is Fred Waskowiak, who joined in 2001. Thanks, Fred, keep it up! Back in Joe L.’s era, Isabel and Roberto Tellez, lifetime lovers, helped to give the chorus a Spanish flavor, along with Josie and Luisa Matsuba, Josie Chavez Deason (still active) and Irene Bailey, sisters who used their large Indian drums to accompany appropriate songs. There were others including some English only speakers that joined them in the many years in which a Spanish song was included in our monthly programs.

In the decade 2000 – 2010, we acquired an astonishing number of great voices and organizers. They include Ray Scroggins, our chorus chairman and alternating director. I remember many great solos through the years. I loved “Without a Song” and “Some Enchanted Evening”!

We picked up Joan Kowalski, (in charge of member music copies, board member, music committee member). Who can forget Joan’s Senior Olympics rendition of “Second Hand Rose”! Certainly not Joan, but she doesn’t do it anymore – enough is enough, she says. She often says that joining our chorus was the best thing she’s ever done. We love Joan; she makes sure there are a couple of ballads on each program!

And then there’s George Rushing, our fabled announcer. He’s invaluable – he also brings all the sound equipment and stores it in his home, along with the music file cabinets. He also does all the copying for the chorus, which is a big job. His innumerable solos have entertained us and our audiences. My favorites: “Who Put the Bomp?” and “Cowboy Boots” or maybe “It’s Hard to be Humble”.

An important addition was Roger McCandless in 2009. He was a big, beautiful man who did it all with grace and style. He directed, he played his uke, he had a great voice and gave good advice for other directors and the singers. He even did a rain dance, in costume, during our “make it rain” program in April one year. We still mourn his passing in 2015.

Mary Kammann was a spark for the chorus. A great voice, spoons player, and a take charge sort of gal, she contributed a lot before she moved away.

Many others of our most dedicated and talented singers joined in the “2000’s” decade. Jo Banks, Eleanor Kruschke, Flonnie Cross, Phyllis Medd, and Gayle Trantham Welch, and Wanda Worrell joined in that decade, and are still active members. All of them have done numerous featured performances. Notable was the “Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy” by Phyllis, Gayle and Joan, “Cuando la Gusta” by Jo and Eleanor, Flonnie’s Christmas songs, and we will never forget Wanda’s rendition of Minnie Pearl, although she would like for us to. We appreciate them all for their loyalty and contributions to the success of the chorus.

We also added Chuck Riggs and Harry Whalen that decade. Harry moved to Las Vegas and Chuck took up uke work, a project started by Roger. We’ll never forget Harry and George singing “Casey Lowered the Boom”, or Harry’s Irish solos. Chuck was a rotating director, announcer, and had a good voice. His rendition of “Hard Hearted Hannah, the Vamp from Savannah” at the Senior Olympics was outstanding.

Bob and Arlene Shade joined in 2005. Arlene passed a few years back, and Bob at 93, recently retired. If we’re lucky we may see him at the two Good Sam’s venues, where he is a resident of the independent We all appreciate his service in the Army Air Corps during WWII, and the way his uniform still fits for our patriotic month.

The time from 2010 to the present has been a time of great growth for the chorus. Sometime in 2012, after Joe L. was disabled we called a meeting (a very rare event) and the group decided to organize the chorus differently. We also developed further structure: a board of directors. Ray stepped up when we were choosing a chairman, thank you, Ray, you’re doing great! We also adopted a rotating schedule for musical directors. Many have served, including Ray, Dennis Cherry, Marilyn Gioannini, Ruth Ann Hanlin, Chuck Riggs, Roger McCandless, and Phyllis Medd.

(This article prepared by Marilyn Gioannini, pianist, music archivist and collector, sometime director from Dec. 1999 to Mar. 2016.)