The choir president died in a car crash. So they honored her with a special song.

Friends of Tabatha Romaker, the president of the L.D. Bell High School choir who died after a car crash in March, wanted to remember her with special words and music.

During its spring concert last week, the choir performed “For You, I Sing Alleluia,” a special piece with music written by Bell graduate Chris Harris, a composer who is earning his Ph.D. at Florida State University. Devondra F. Banks wrote the words.

Romaker, a senior at Bell who was 17 at the time of her death, loved music and always wanted to perform “the tough pieces,” said her teacher, Jo Ann Antinone.

“She would have been proud and excited about this music because it is a tough, heady piece,” Antinone said.

Tabatha’s mother, Rita Romaker, who attended the performance, said she was honored and touched that someone who didn’t know her daughter would write a composition in her honor

“We are so touched that this kind man took time from his job and did this in her memory,” she said.

“That is every parent’s nightmare, that everyone will forget their child. Now, there is a piece of music that lives on,” she said.

Harris, 31, who graduated from L.D. Bell in 2003, said he did not know Tabatha Romaker, but read about her death on Facebook and knew that his former teacher and her students were “hurting.”

“It broke my heart immediately. I thought about the pain her loved ones were feeling. I knew what it was like to be in the L.D. Bell choir,” Harris said.

Harris is in the Ph.D. program for choral conducting at Florida State, and decided to put his doctoral work on hold so that he could work on the composition honoring Romaker.

Harris said he and Romaker’s closest friends had several conference calls to talk about their friend and what she meant. Harris said he enlisted help from his friend Banks, who teaches music in Houston and is a poet as well.

“I wanted to show the love she shared with her family and friends, who all spoke wonderfully of her,” he said.

During most of the concert, the choir sang hits from the 1960s and 1970s before shifting to the a cappella piece remembering their friend.

The poem reads in part, “Heart of gold, voice so sweet, diligent servant, mild and meek,

Lover of life, music, and me, was the angel that filled this space.

A mother’s dream, a father’s joy, a sister to all, every girl and boy,

what I hope to be, who I long to see; the angel that filled this space.”

Tabatha Romaker died March 5 several hours after she and her boyfriend were in a car crash on Interstate 20 near Collins Street. Arlington police said at the time they believed the car hydroplaned on rain-slick pavement as the boyfriend tried to change lanes.

Tabatha’s mother said although her daughter loved music, she wanted to become a nurse with a goal of becoming a surgeon, and she was looking forward to using music in her work as a nurse.

She was accepted in to the nursing program at Texas Woman’s University, Rita Romaker said.

Besides her involvement in music, Tabatha Romaker volunteered at the Richland Hills Animal Shelter because it is a no-kill facility, her mother said.

Romaker said she and her family were overwhelmed and grateful for the support from the H-E-B community and from the school district.

“We always knew as her parents that she was special. We had no idea that others thought she was so special.”

This report contains material from the Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published May 13, 2017 at 6:32 PM with the headline "The choir president died in a car crash. So they honored her with a special song.."