Walt who had taken the position of band leader, decided to hire a female lead guitar player and singer from Yakima, Washington named Helen Downs. Walt and Lorri and the band originally met Helen when her and her husband at the time came to see the Walt Rogers Four perform at the Flower Drum. This is when Walt found out Helen was a guitar player and singer. The Walt Rogers Four played as the house band at the Flower Drum 6 nights a week for several years. They also recorded two albums covering some of the top hits of the time. WALT ROGERS FOUR consisted of:
Walt Rogers on drums, vocals, fiddle. Lois Gibson, rhythm guitars, vocals. Helen Downs, lead guitar, vocals. Lorri Rogers, bass, vocals. (see below)
The albums are noteably WALT ROGERS FOUR and WALT ROGERS FOUR COMPLETE ON A BRIDGE. This continued until 1976, when Walt and Lorri decided to go on the road again and take a job with the Kimberlys (who were a big band in their day) and were based in Reno Nevada. This meant Lois and Helen were left to make some decisions of their own about their musical future.
Lois went to work with Helen in a band Helen formed in Vancouver Washington and at the same time Lois decided to go back to school and went to business college to pursue secretarial work along with her music career just in case things didn't pan out. At this time, Lois was not sure what she was going to do as she now had a daughter with Bobby, and Lois was still single and just concentrating on working and raising her daughter, when along came an old friend of 11 years. That fellow was Jay Andy Thompson who actually engineered both the WALT ROGERS FOUR Albums. So, "no stranger to the rain", Andy was a broadcast engineer for Radio also a Recording Engineer and was totally familiar with the music business and Lois' lifestyle, which helps a lot in a fickle and crazy industry. So after an extended period of dating, Andy and Lois were married February 24th, 1979. Andy and his son moved from Renton, Washington, Lois and her daughter moved from Vancouver, Washington to a house in West Seattle for about a year until they relocated and moved to Woodinville, Washington.
Once Lois moved to Woodinville, Washington, she started a group on her own called LOIS THOMPSON and the KING COUNTY LINE. Read more about LOIS THOMPSON and THE KING COUNTY LINE.