CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On a miserable evening in the fall of 1972, gubernatorial candidate Jay Rockefeller made a campaign speech at Sophia High School's homecoming game. Lou Ann Johnson never forgot that night.

"It was raining so hard, they had to crown the homecoming queen in the gym," she said.

Her father, the school guidance counselor and assistant principal, welcomed Rockefeller and showed him around. He delivered his speech at halftime. "He was tall and striking," she said. "He spoke to two dozen people in a driving rain. That impressed me.

"He wasn't very popular in Southern West Virginia on that run because of strip mining. That made even more of an impression on me. Then he was kind enough to write my dad a thank-you note. That made an impression on my family."

She was 14.

"I had no idea our paths would ever cross again."

Their paths more than crossed. Her association with the lanky candidate she admired as a teenager spans 28 years. In December, she will resign as Rockefeller's longtime state director.

In 1980, she graduated with honors from Concord College with a B.S. degree in community development and regional planning. She started working that year as a planner in the community development division of then-Gov. Rockefeller's Office of Economic and Community Development. In 1985, she joined his U.S. Senate staff. In 1987, she moved up to state director.

"She has been enormously helpful to West Virginia," Rockefeller said during a telephone interview from his Washington office. "I had a very personal feeling about West Virginia because I wasn't born there, and it was difficult for me to be accepted there. They trusted me faster because they so identified with her. She is the perfect West Virginian.

"She knew everybody. Everybody trusted her and would tell her anything. Steel country in the north is different than coal country in the south, and she knew them both inside out. A lot of the work in West Virginia is not done just on policy, but on the basis of personal relationships. You have to have trust."

Her college major sold him on her long before he got to know her well, he said. "The fact that she had majored in economic and community development at Concord already says something about somebody. That's an unusual major. Economic development is a metaphor for helping people It says, 'I want to help people get jobs. I want people's lives to be better.'"

Her father set the example, she said. "As a guidance counselor and assistant principal, he was a role model in public service. He was always going above and beyond. I always knew I wanted to teach or do something in public service. It's the way my family was geared."

Her parents encouraged her budding political passions, she said. She's a professed feminist - "I accept the title proudly" - and an unabashed liberal. "I'm so flaming, I'm on fire.

"In the '70s, in high school, I was very interested in politics and women's rights. My parents let me subscribe to Ms. Magazine."

She first sunk her feminist teeth into the issue of athletic equality. "The only women's sport in Raleigh County was volleyball," she said. "I'd read about Title IX. In 1975, they were starting to implement it into the schools. I stirred the pot and got a women's basketball team."

The Governor's Office of Economic and Community Development recruited her during Career Day at Concord. "Concord had the only planning program in the state. I don't know why that was. I don't think we're thought of as an urban planning hotbed. Anyway, they had an opening for a planner."

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- On a miserable evening in the fall of 1972, gubernatorial candidate Jay Rockefeller made a campaign speech at Sophia High School's homecoming game. Lou Ann Johnson never forgot that night.

"It was raining so hard, they had to crown the homecoming queen in the gym," she said.

Her father, the school guidance counselor and assistant principal, welcomed Rockefeller and showed him around. He delivered his speech at halftime. "He was tall and striking," she said. "He spoke to two dozen people in a driving rain. That impressed me.

"He wasn't very popular in Southern West Virginia on that run because of strip mining. That made even more of an impression on me. Then he was kind enough to write my dad a thank-you note. That made an impression on my family."

She was 14.

"I had no idea our paths would ever cross again."

Their paths more than crossed. Her association with the lanky candidate she admired as a teenager spans 28 years. In December, she will resign as Rockefeller's longtime state director.

In 1980, she graduated with honors from Concord College with a B.S. degree in community development and regional planning. She started working that year as a planner in the community development division of then-Gov. Rockefeller's Office of Economic and Community Development. In 1985, she joined his U.S. Senate staff. In 1987, she moved up to state director.

"She has been enormously helpful to West Virginia," Rockefeller said during a telephone interview from his Washington office. "I had a very personal feeling about West Virginia because I wasn't born there, and it was difficult for me to be accepted there. They trusted me faster because they so identified with her. She is the perfect West Virginian.

"She knew everybody. Everybody trusted her and would tell her anything. Steel country in the north is different than coal country in the south, and she knew them both inside out. A lot of the work in West Virginia is not done just on policy, but on the basis of personal relationships. You have to have trust."

Her college major sold him on her long before he got to know her well, he said. "The fact that she had majored in economic and community development at Concord already says something about somebody. That's an unusual major. Economic development is a metaphor for helping people It says, 'I want to help people get jobs. I want people's lives to be better.'"

Her father set the example, she said. "As a guidance counselor and assistant principal, he was a role model in public service. He was always going above and beyond. I always knew I wanted to teach or do something in public service. It's the way my family was geared."

Her parents encouraged her budding political passions, she said. She's a professed feminist - "I accept the title proudly" - and an unabashed liberal. "I'm so flaming, I'm on fire.

"In the '70s, in high school, I was very interested in politics and women's rights. My parents let me subscribe to Ms. Magazine."

She first sunk her feminist teeth into the issue of athletic equality. "The only women's sport in Raleigh County was volleyball," she said. "I'd read about Title IX. In 1975, they were starting to implement it into the schools. I stirred the pot and got a women's basketball team."

The Governor's Office of Economic and Community Development recruited her during Career Day at Concord. "Concord had the only planning program in the state. I don't know why that was. I don't think we're thought of as an urban planning hotbed. Anyway, they had an opening for a planner."

Her first day at work, on the way to the main Capitol to sign some papers, the personnel director pointed out political writer Fanny Seiler. "She said, 'She works for the Gazette. Don't talk to her.' My knees almost buckled. I didn't know I was going to be talking to the press. I was pretty green."

Later on, of course, she talked to Seiler, who is now retired, a lot. "I liked her. I miss her to this day."

When Rockefeller left the Capitol for the U.S. Senate, she interviewed for a job in the Senate office. "On a cold, snowy January night, I went to the Governor's Mansion. There were boxes everywhere because they were moving out. He interviewed me about doing projects and grants and economic development."

Two years later, he tapped her to fill the state director vacancy. "I needed someone to run West Virginia for me," he said. "It was the easiest decision in the world. My trust for her is so deep, I can't express it to you."

Confined in a car as they logged thousands of miles together crisscrossing the state, they learned from each other. "I learned a lot about West Virginia from Lou Ann," he said. "I always thought of us as working together, as equal people trying to do the same job.

"We've driven the Turnpike probably 500 or 600 times. It will take me a long time not to think that she's in that car with me going to Wendy's and McDonald's. I will miss her terribly."

On the road, she got to know her longtime boss inside out. "He's incredibly down to earth," she said. "His parents did a good job of keeping him grounded. He would talk about the two years he spent as a Vista worker in Emmons and how much that changed him. He developed a real empathy for what the people in this state battle every day."

"I wasn't going to stay," he said. "The nature of the people caused me to stay. I felt I had found my life's work. I wanted to work with these folks who took me in and fed me three times a day."

His determination impressed her. "I admired his way of taking a long-term view. He was going to get a water system for Emmons if it took him 20 years. He went after the Toyota plant even after development officials said we couldn't get them.

"I learned from him to be pretty big in your thinking. West Virginians tend to have a collective self-confidence. He has lifted us up beyond the mountains to see the possibilities beyond."

She's 50, that do-or-die age for making life changes. Retirement, she said, will allow her to unleash some of the soapbox activism she restrained in deference to his position. "I've got some pent up sustained outrage, some cause I want to devote some time to. I sometimes had to bite my tongue to do the job I wanted to do for him.

"I want to use my own voice. I helped found the DREMA Democrats a few years ago, and I want to be more active in that, helping to elect progressive women to office."

She also plans to spend more time with her family in Sophia.

Rockefeller named Rochelle Goodwin, deputy state director since 2006, as his new state director.

Reach Sandy Wells at 348-5173 or e-mail san...@wvgazette.com.