Clarita Burden now has a special honor—and a medal. She was inducted into the Washington State Music Teachers Association Hall of Fame at a banquet in late June. She is the first Lewis County music teacher to receive this honor.

According to a profile in the Lewis County newspaper, The Chronicle, Burden revitalized the Lewis County chapter of the music teachers association in the late 1970s and has held nearly every office in her local chapter.

"Even though she's retired from teaching now, the Hall of Fame seemed like a good way to honor her," says Robin Chadwick, Lewis County Music Teachers Association president, in The Chronicle.

As a young girl, she would try to avoid music practice. As a teenager, though, she fell in love with music. "Music," says Burden, "is one of God's greatest gifts to us."

Burden holds a bachelor's degree in music from Lamont School of Music at the University of Denver and a master's degree in piano performance and music education from Pacific Union College in Angwin, Calif.

The Burden family moved to Chehalis, Wash., in 1973. Burden plays the organ regularly at the Chehalis Church and each year at Washington Camp Meeting.

Seventy years after those first few piano lessons, the practice has paid off in an honor Burden never anticipated receiving.