Celebrating 50 years of music with Cindy King

Cindy King is humble about her tenure at Notre Dame Regional High School.

"Every teacher here is working as hard as I am, so it's hard for me to be singled out," the longtime musical director and former English teacher told the Southeast Missourian recently. "I feel for those teachers who are up all night grading papers. They never get their name in a newspaper."

But King deserves some recognition -- especially this year. After 50 years of teaching at the Cape Girardeau Catholic high school, King plans to retire at the end of the school year.

She has had an incredible career with a major impact, full of long days and many nights and weekends preparing for performances, practicing with students and thinking about the next big show. From her directorial debut, which featured "Fiddler on the Roof," to her final show next month, King has helped students enjoy the love of music while entertaining many in this area with quality performances.

Speaking of her final production, this year's musical is "Once Upon a Mattress," which will run four times at 7 p.m. April 7 through 10 at Notre Dame Regional High School.

Congratulations to Cindy King on a worthy career, and thank you for impacting the lives of so many students over the last 50 years.