The Johnny Knorr Orchestra - 40th Anniversary Party

It is difficult to find words to describe the tremendous evening of August 4, 2001 at Centennial celebrating the 40th Anniversary of the Johnny Knorr Band. It really all came together...friends, fans, the band, former band members, co-workers, special people like Jim and Peg Tichy, Larry Wagner, Paul and Jini Kohler from Cleveland, our very special Don Edwards and, of course, the Lord blessed us with great weather.

It has been a long time since there has been an SRO crowd at Centennial for a big band dance. They tell me that parking was outside the area on the sides of the road and all of the tables were taken! I know looking over 10,000 square feet of dance floor covered with dancing couples really touched my heart. Not only was this an anniversary of the band, it was also a great chance for so many people to see each other and be together again making it a great evening.

What a pleasure to see 12 former band members and to hear Mary Ann sing a very appropriate song titled, "I Love Being Here With You" and to have Jerry there, who is the only original member of the band.

Jane's six panels of photos of the 40 years made a big hit and they are still intact. The cameras were clicking and we already have some prints of the evening and Barbara Hendel's review in the paper with a picture of the dance floor was really nice. You can also see pictures that our webmaster Scott Weaver took below. Denny, who had the video camera did a superb job...I have seen the video and we may make it available to the public (watch for news here).

I think the event brought a lot of enjoyment to the people who were there and also will be something special for them to remember.

God Bless you all for making it possible and especially my wife, Jane.

Johnny