Longtime singing telegram artist serenades valentines in Nacogdoches

NACOGDOCHES, TX (KTRE) - When you make a living singing telegrams to valentines, guests of honor, and at birthday events, there’s usually a backstory that’s just as entertaining as the act you perform.

“This is something I did a long time ago, when I first came to college here in the early 90s,” said singing telegram artist Roz Couch. “Of course, this was pre-internet. Some friends of mine and I wanted to earn a little bit of extra cash -- running around money -- and we decided to start doing singing telegrams.”

Couch was a theater student, so live performance was already in her repertoire, and much of her early clientele involved friends and word-of-mouth customers.

“I was looking for something new to do with my time and my life,” said Couch. “I said, you know, what I want to do is have fun and spread smiles, and I always did that when I did singing telegrams. So I brought it back.”

The telegram is something of a dying art, Couch admits, with the emergence of the World Wide Web. However, she said it only makes the moment more special for recipients who don’t know what’s coming.

“It’s kind of retro. In the past, people usually got bad news by telegrams,” Couch explained. “What we do is send good news, happy birthday celebrations, and then, of course, Valentine’s Day is the perfect day to send a message of love through a singing telegram.”

Couch also gives recipients a special keepsake telegram after her performance. If you’d like to see Couch in action, or learn more about scheduling her for singing telegrams or events, you can visit the RozJam Entertainment Facebook page for more information.

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