The audience erupted in applause at the 79th annual Winchester-Clark County Chamber of Commerce awards banquet Thursday as Len Midden announced the late Graham Johns had won the 2019 Citizen of the Year award.

“The Citizen of the Year was my best friend, a friend of mine and all of us here,” Midden said. “He was the radio voice of the Cardinals over 30 years, a golf buddy, and the man that believed in the four F’s: faith, family, friends and fun.

“He believed in community and loved Winchester … He checked all the boxes for Citizen of the Year.”

Johns’ wife, Lisa Johns, accepted the award on his behalf.

“On days when you say, ‘There’s nothing that I can do,’ there is something you can do,” Lisa Johns said. “And so you need to, each day, get up with joy in your heart, which (Graham) always did, which always made me mad.. but get up with joy in your heart and work hard in your community. Because of you and because of what you do, you make your community and always remember that.”

Other winners include:

— John Rompf, Director of the Year

— Brenda Harrington, Community Service Award

— Achieving Recovery Together (ART), Nonprofit of the Year

— Amazon, Business of the Year

— Dirty South Pottery, Downtown Business of the Year

— Catalent, Partner in Education’s Partner of the Year

Chamber President Amy Turner closed out the night, thanking everyone for being involved and encouraging the growth to continue.

“I just want to thank everybody here for making this chamber so great,” Turner said. “Because it it wasn’t for you, we would not keep growing and growing and we just need to get better and better. So I look forward to 2019.”