John Pickering had  many musical endeavors, including:

Singer: John was a soloist for religious and secular programs in the Houston area, as well as interim choir director for churches.

Songwriter: John wrote gospel and country songs, affiliated with BMI.

Recording artist: John wrote, arranged and recorded Pop, Rock, Country and Gospel music, which he released on his own label – Pick Records, sometimes licensing them to other companies. Vicky is continuing with the company.

Music publisher: Through John Pickering Music Co, in June 2000, he published a gospel CD entitled “Only Jesus”, which includes 7 new songs, along with 11 previously released songs all written and sung by John.

Record producer: With Pick Records, John produced 7 new gospel songs at Sound Master Studios in Houston, Texas with Lonnie Wright and A.V. Mittlestedt as engineers. These songs are found on the CD “Only Jesus”, backed vocally by John, A.V. (also rhythm guitarist), and Randy Cornor (also lead guitarist).

Record distributor: John has distributed a gospel album.

In addition to his musical endeavors, John was an AAPG Certified Petroleum Geologist, having received his B.S. degree in Petroleum Geology from Texas Tech University in 1957. He generates prospects for wildcat oil and gas explorations along the Texas Gulf Coast.

John also developed and markets a computerized Paleontological Database (PalCon) which contains paleo information for almost 3000 wells in the 22 contiguous counties in the south half of the Texas Gulf Coast. See www.southtexaspaleo.com. In 2010 John completed the Paleontological Database for counties in the north half of the Texas Gulf Coast, nearby waters and offshore Texas making a total for information on almost 4,000 wells.

John Pickering was still involved in the music industry until his sudden death of cardiac arrest 02-28-2011.

Bob Lapham retired from the newspaper industry but continued writing novels and lived in Abilene, Texas. He died April 4, 2018.