Though Kay King has recently retired as head of the fashion and design program at Houston Community College after a 30-year career as an educator and mentor to such local designers as Chloe Dao and Gayla Bentley, she may have found a new means of livelihood — as a singer.

Instead of giving a dry speech at the Decorative Center Thursday night, where she was honored as Houston's fashion trailblazer, King sang her thanks to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music. The lyrics went like this:

Retirement brings free time for sewing and knitting,

Elasticized waistbands in all garment fittings,

Old unread magazines tied up in string,

These are a few of my new favorite things.

When my joints ache,

When my hips break,

When my face looks sad,

I simply remember my favorite things, and then I don't feel so bad.

King finished the song to wild applause from HCC president William Harmon, Jeff Shell, Jeanne Ruberti, Tabbitha Pagel Garcia, Chloe Dao and her sister, Sydney Dao, Lenny Matuszewski, Tamara Klosz Bonar and the event's co-chairs Lisa Benitez, Linda Kuykendall and Ed Smith.

Also joining in the festivities were Fashion Group International regional director Josephine Firat, Suzette Brimmer, who is succeeding King as chair of the department of fashion and design at HCC, Immigration Judge Clarease Rankin Yates and King's husband, George King.

King created jersey uniforms for Astrodome usherettes in 1969, neon orange glow-in-the-dark quilted jackets for Astrodome parking lot workers in the '70s, and the red, white and blue Texas Commerce Bank “Star Girl” uniforms for the bank’s official hostesses in 1976. The multi-lingual “Star Girls” specialized in helping the bank’s international customers.

She also designed and produced all of the costumes and uniforms for the opening of AstroWorld in 1968 —all in one month. On display at the tribute were men's and women's red shatung Mandarin collar shirts that employees in the theme park's Oriental World section wore.

Perhaps the piece de resistance of King's work is the original 1971 Houston Oiler’s Derrick Doll Cheerleaders uniform made of red, white and blue Quiana and stretch satin.

"Bud Adams called me in and said, 'I just want it to be sexier than the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders,' " King recalled.

She created a two-piece outfit that exposed the midriff and had long sleeves — each dangling with 36 inches of fringe. But during rehearsals, cheerleaders were slapping each other in the face with the fringe so much — and even becoming entangled with each other — that King had to do something drastic.

"So I kept cutting the fringe off until it was a workable 12 inches (in length)," she said.

In 1992, when the cheerleaders complained they would rather not have bare midriffs, King designed a one-piece red, white and blue stretch satin leotard-style uniform. The stripes at top of the sleeves reflected the stripes on a traditional football jersey.

In 1995, she added iridescent sequins to the red and blue stretch satin details on the uniforms for a little more glitz.

Other looks designed by King on display ranged from a red nylon ciré fur-lined raincoat made from an old Furlan-Spritzer fur coat for her first trip to Paris in 1982 to a black cotton jacket constructed from a floral hand-embroidered Guatemalan Huipil purchased during a trip to Guatemala in 2005.

For her big evening, King wore a black sequined St. John jacket and matching slacks. "I'm not making my clothes anymore," she declared, although she vows that she's got lot more fire left in her.

"I've had 74 fashionably fabulous years and I ain't done yet," she told the audience.

Proceeds from the evening will fun a scholarship in King's name at Houston Community College and fashion, interior design and beauty industry scholarships through Fashion Group International.