By Donna Alvis-Banks
The New River Current

RADFORD - John Plott is a 46-year-old paramedic, but he still carries around the things he learned in his choir class at Radford High.

"If someone asked me, 'Who's the toughest teacher you ever had?'" Plott said, "it would be Mrs. Carr." If that someone asked about the best teacher he ever had, his answer would be the same.

Plott believes Lois Carr taught him more than how to sing. She taught him how to be a better person.

"She led us all through example - and she was tough on us," he noted. "At the end of the day, Mrs. Carr never stopped. She would bring students to her home and sit us around the piano to learn our parts. At the same time, she would feed us cookies and milk."

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis - often called ALS or "Lou Gehrig's Disease" - forced Lois Carr to retire from Radford City Schools in May 2003 at age 71. The disease named for the Yankee baseball great silenced Carr's sweet soprano, but it didn't stop her students from singing her praises. Last year, many of those she had taught over the years got together to honor Carr with a tribute concert. Tonight, a second concert will feature music by Carr's youngest daughter, soprano Kate Carr, and her former accompanist, pianist Bill White.

White, a songwriter and choral arrangeraccompanied Lois Carr during the mid-1980s when she taught her own daughter at Radford High School.

He said the experience of watching teenagers grow under Carr's guidance was inspiring.

"She really loved the kids," he recalled. "She taught longer than she had to."

"Bill and I are doing this as something fun for Mother and also as a 'thank you' to her for teaching all of us," explained Kate Carr. "Not only is she my mother, she taught me."

Kate Carr, who is working on her doctorate in vocal performance at the University of Oklahoma, recently returned home to care for her mother. Her sister Marsha Elliott lives in Kentucky and sister Susan McCurry lives in Madison, Va.

Giving birth to three girls was the only thing that tookCarr away from a teaching career that spanned more than 30 years.

"If you called any citizen from Radford who grew up in the '70s, they took music from Mother," noted Kate Carr.

Bev Davis, who signed up for chorus because Carr was his godmother and a close family friend, said he learned early on about Carr's tough-but-fair reputation.

"I got kicked out of one of the plays she produced," said Davis, a 38-year-old Radford lawyer. "I missed a rehearsal. That's how fair she was.

"She treated everyone with respect and kindness, no matter who you were," Davis added. "She was in complete charge - and had a sense of humor about it. It was a fun class and she made it that way."

Davis said Carr was even able to turn young people on to classical music.

"She made it cool to know Vivaldi."

But Carr loved a raucous musical comedy just as much as a Vivaldi concerto or Mozart mass.

John Plott's older brother, Jim, said he "couldn't carry a tune in a bucket" when he walked into Carr's class. He soon found himself in the starring role of the first musical she produced at Radford High School.

"I was Li'l Abner," Jim Plott explained. "I guess I'm a big ol' goofy country boy. She taught me to sing."

Jim Plott's children later studied music with Carr when she transferred to McHarg Elementary School in 1987. He insisted they take chorus.

"I think the arts are real important," he said. "That may sound funny coming from a Southwest Virginia redneck. I think it broadens you. Mrs. Carr expected a lot out of you but she didn't expect more than what you had. I always thought she was a person who broadened kids all around."

Although Carr is unable to speak now because the bulbar form of ALS that she has affects speech and swallowing, she communicates through writing. Earlier this week, Carr said she loves her students and misses teaching.

"My favorite," she wrote, "was high school. We did musicals and had fun with them. I have them on video and have teased some of my students by telling them I would show them to their children."

"She likes to torture us with those videos," groaned daughter Kate. "It's terrible to see yourself when you're 14 and your voice isn't developed and you're scrawny."

When asked why she was so tough on the students she loves so much, Carr smiled and scribbled, "I wasn't tough - just nice."

Carr said the first sign that she had ALS came two years ago when her voice became hoarse. Then her speech began to slur. Last year, she lost her voice completely.

"I'd like to tell it off," she wrote of her disease, "but I can't."

Carr also directed the choirs at Radford's First Baptist Church for more than 20 years, served on the city's Arts and Events Commission and headed up the city's Beautification Committee. Her friends say she is showing the same spirit and strength in dealing with her disease that she showed in her working life.

Joann Lineburg, who taught with Carr at McHarg, said she depended on her friend's strong voice.

"Radford is a very academic school system," Lineberg noted. "I taught physical education and Lois taught music, so we both taught outside the academic world. Sometimes we had to take up for our part. And Lois is a good one to have on your side. She has a lot of spunk." Tribute concert Tonight's concert honoring Lois Carr starts at 7 at First Baptist Church, Third and Downey streets, Radford. Soprano Kate Carr and pianist Bill White will perform, along with other members of the Carr family. Admission is free but donations will be accepted for a new scholarship, the Lois Carr Education Scholarship, established through the Radford High School Foundation Inc.

Barbara Prillaman, who is setting up the scholarship with Barbara Turk, said plans are to award the first scholarship to a graduating senior in 2005. Seniors in the city of Radford - including home-schooled students - will be eligible.

Donations are tax deductible, and checks may be earmarked for the Lois Carr Education Scholarship and sent to the Radford High School Foundation Inc., P.O. Box 2823, Radford, VA 24143-2823